Riot Raffle

A few weeks ago I watched in horror as the events in Tottenham spread throughout east and south London. Like many people I was unable to turn away from the TV and found myself almost in tears as rioters and looters made their way through Camden and Ealing - parts of London I know, and where people I love have their homes - leaving a path of destruction in their wake.

More than a hundred homes were destroyed during the riots, and businesses estimate costs running into the hundreds of millions. Those hardest hit were the many small, independent businesses that still cling on in an already difficult financial climate. With no huge corporation to back them up many have seen everything they have worked hard for many years to achieve completely destroyed by a bunch of yobs in an opportunistic frenzy.



All this made me mad, but while I was angrily tweeting my disgust, the lovely Zoe at Zoe and Drew was formulating a fabulous plan - a way for all of us, helplessly watching from the sidelines, to actually help the victims of this nightmare rebuild their businesses and their lives.

Working with Retail Trust, Zoe came up with the RIOT RAFFLE

A simple appeal for members of the crafting community to donate something to the prize fund resulted in a flood of fabulous contributions - so many in fact that Zoe has said she can accept no more after Sunday 28th August, so if you want to add something to the prize pool you need to get in there quickly (tweet @RiotRaffle for how to donate...)

Now all you lovely readers have to do is buy a ticket, or three (or however many you want). Simply visit the website, click on the 'Buy your ticket' button and donate as much as you can afford - you get allocated one ticket for every pound you donate. You have until 30th September 2011 to purchase tickets.

So tweet, post on facebook, blog, email this post to all your friend, spread the word about the Riot Raffle to anyone who will listen and let's show all of those whose neighbourhoods and livelihoods were destroyed that we saw and we care enough to help them put their lives back together.

www.riotraffle.org

tweet @RiotRaffle

facebook.com/RiotRaffle

ps here is my donation to the prize pool :)