A grand raised from gunge by Pembrokeshire Bucketeers!”

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A grand raised from gunge by Pembrokeshire Bucketeers!”
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Community champions from across organisations working in Pembrokeshire have exceeded their original £500 target and raised £1,200 for BBC Children in Need.
Hosted by Celtic Timber, and the brainchild of their Head of Marketing, Jon Howcroft, some local community leads were placed in wooden barrels and had over 400 litres of gunge poured over, and thrown at them to raise funds for charities supporting young people across our county.
As Jon explains “As part of my role with Celtic Timber, I am always looking for ways that we can give back to our community and national charities. Having dunked in an oak barrel ice bath in the summer to raise money for The DPJ Foundation, we wanted to raise the stakes and what better way than getting gunged for Children in Need? Speaking to Iwan and Martin in the early planning stages, it was clear that they had the same passion and willingness to embarrass themselves for a good cause.”
It turns out that the two other gunge leads with Jon who would readily participate were Martin Jones, who is the Community Engagement Management Lead here in Pembrokeshire for Ogi, and Iwan Thomas, whose various roles across community organisations in the county include Chair of the Board at Pembrokeshire College, and CEO of PLANED.
“I should say I thought I was signing up for a bake sale for Children in Need, and all of this gunging in a barrel was under false pretences” says Martin from Ogi. “However, I agreed straightaway, as how often do you get to do something as crazy as this for a brilliant cause, and whose funds will hopefully impact and support so many young people here in West Wales. It was brilliant as an experience, and I even managed to sign up one of my colleagues from Ogi at the last minute, Louise Clement, to also join in!”
Iwan Thomas adds “When Jon asked, I could not say no. A bit of cold discomfort for the few of us, to hopefully raise funds to assist and support the many young people who need the support of those charities was a clear driver for all of us, especially as sadly, Pembrokeshire has one of the highest child poverty rates in Wales. Plus, to raise awareness on a serious issue, but by being given this opportunity to step out of the normal routine and join these crazy idiots in a brilliant experience was something the three of us all signed up to without hesitation!”
In the weeks leading up to the gunging, the three main leads above, used all forms of social media to raise awareness and encourage everyone in their contacts lists to support and contribute where they could, with some contacts jokingly asking to leave online groups if they did contribute. However, the engagement also saw the roping in of a further participant in the form of Haverfordwest County AFC Manager, Tony Pennock, who joined the others on the day in his own barrel, and was subjected to buckets of gunge being thrown over him of various colours to add to the visual humiliation of all involved for charity.
The event itself was livestreamed with great support from Pure West Radio whose presenter Tom Dyer, broadcast live from Celtic Timber and interviewing the participants as yet more gunge was poured over the participants. However, eventually following live donations made online, Tom got gunged himself by an avalanche of gunge buckets from the already messed up and colourful participants who happily shared their messy experience with the radio presenter.
Since the online gunging, funds have continued to pour in, and have been further enhanced by the donation from Wales and Scarlets player, Gareth Davies, who donated a squad signed Scarlets shirt for auction, which further added to the total raised.
Jon, Martin and Iwan would like to thank everyone for their support and patience whilst they have promoted the gunging, both before and afterwards, and are hoping to present the cheque to Pudsey from Children in Need in the coming weeks.
In the meantime, plans are already being discussed by the three gunge leads on how to make next years gunging for charity bigger and better. So community leads and local personalities had better look out!

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