Laugh-a-thon for British Heart Foundation, May 28th And More Muda

Submitted by tonyplant on May 26, 2006 - 17:27.

The next big event on the laughter calendar is the national Laugh-a-thon on Sunday, May 28th which is being run in collaboration with the British Heart Foundation.

The Laugh-a-thon is sponsored in aid of the British Heart Foundation and is also an exploration of the health benefits of laughter. After some local difficulty, I managed to chat with my local BHF co-ordinators and organise an event for Spurriers Cafe, Harlow Park, this Sunday 28th at 1pm..

 

So, unless it is contra-indicated, and you have been warned off laughing - have a look at what is available in your local area and go along to a Laugh-a-thon event. Laughter really is good for you!

Never one to pass up the opportunity for a whinge, the local difficulty was that I went to my local BHF shop to find out more about the event, only to be told that the shops aren't allowed to participate in local fund-raising. I was told some probably-defensible but ludicrous-sounding story about how two local men had raised £1500 at an event and wanted to donate the money for use in the local area: anyway, you aren't allowed to make a directed donation for local use, so the shop couldn't accept the money. This whole area was obviously the source of ill-feeling but I am glad to say that the shop did accept some advertising material for the event once everything was sorted. I shall whinge about that in a separate paragraph.

I was given contact details for the person to whom I needed to speak, who was not, of course, the right person. Several false leads later, I managed to get in touch with the Regional Co-ordinator who had not heard of this national Laugh-a-thon event. I have to say that she has been very helpful and organised, but she was plainly a little irritated that she hadn't heard of such a high-profile (for heaven's sake, the Laugh-a-thon was discussed on R2, what greater accolade...) and national event.

My most recent problem has been trying to obtain a collection permit for any donations that people may make to BHF on the day. I was told that there was only 1 person in my local council who could issue the permit. I spent 4 days leaving messages and emailing her until I finally caught up with her, only to learn, of course that she was not the person to whom I needed to speak. I spoke to a man who emailed forms to me and told me to bring them in to person X on Friday (today) who would be expecting me. I turned up at the council offices, clutching my ID and application forms, only to be told that person X does not exist. Some time later, after hunting through directories and the harassed but co-operative receptionist taking it upon herself to actually visit the 4th floor where this person was fabled to work, it was discovered that person X does exist, but is only a temp so does not have a listing in directories. On a related theme, person X seems not to have to abide by standard working practice and had spontaneously decided to take the afternoon off without telling anyone. This left no-one who had the authority to issue the permit.

I'm a mild-mannered man, but I had been chasing this permit for more than 2 weeks and my event is this Sunday. After some argy-bargy, the receptionists went off to browbeat someone into unwillingly authorising a permit, but it will be subject to review next week and I am threatened with dire consequences if I mis-use it. All right and proper I guess but I have ID, local residency, letters from the BHF etc - what do they genuinely think that I can do to abuse this permit? Like many volunteers, but particularly so when you are engaged in social enterprises, I continue to drown in muda.

Copyright 2006, Tony Plant Happystance Project

muda | laughter | laugh-a-thon | event