08/08/2024
People from Christ Church, in Upper Armley, Leeds, took part in a sponsored walk around their parish to raise money to buy new LED lighting and insulation for their Victorian church building.
Thanks to the Give To Go Green scheme, the intrepid walkers raised almost double their original target, which has since been matched by the Church of England’s Net Zero Programme to reach £6,000.
Rev’d Phil Arnold, from Christ Church, said: “We chose a project that was quite achievable: switching to LED lighting. We knew that if we all came together as a church, we could raise the funds we needed with the support of Give To Go Green. While it wouldn’t be our first step towards aiming for net zero — we had already made the switch over from gas to electric in our kitchen — we calculated that the LED lighting would save us a significant amount of money in the long-run and make a big difference on our environmental impact.”
The reason that the fundraising worked so well, reflects Phil, is that it was grounded in one simple challenge that everyone could get behind and work towards.
“We considered a few different fundraising options, but it soon became clear that a sponsored walk all around our parish held the most appeal; we calculated that if you walked the distance twice, that would be equivalent to a half marathon. A few of the team ended up walking the whole half marathon, some ran the distance, while others walked as far as they could — our walkers spanned in age from 10 to 81! The walk brought together all generations.”
The youngest walker in the fundraising team was 10-year-old Sibella Dawkins, who said: "I felt motivated to take part because it sounded fun, keeping fit is good for your mind and body, and I enjoy walking. The day was wet, but I explored places I had never seen before. I think in the future the church will have money to save; hopefully our church can be seen as a role model to help others become more eco-friendly.”
80-year-old Mary Argyle also participated: “I decided to take part in the walk because I feel that we need to do all we can to change our ways to protect the environment. The walk was around the parish boundary, and it rained quite heavily for most of the time, but as we walked, talked and laughed together it was a time of getting to know each other better. We can all make small changes in how we live and I hope we can continue to make improvements.”
Simplicity and accessibility were the key to fundraising success, reflects Phil: “Keeping it local meant that people didn’t have to travel to take part, and also made it more accessible. It was an idea that engaged everyone but was also easy to be a part of.”
Installing new LED lights has been a relatively swift transition for Christ Church and a change that's set to have a big impact on the church’s future carbon footprint.
“The new lights are so effective, we only need to turn on half of the lights that we used to now. It’s going to result in a massive saving over time.”
So, what comes next? “We are now spurred on to pursue more fundraising so that we can really take our Net Zero impact to the next level — a few of us within the church are now planning a 62-mile walk around the whole of the city of Leeds, which we believe will take us two days to do. That’s the next big goal that we’ve set ourselves!”
