Titan Abseil

Thought it would be great to put up this press release from our friends at RSA – they braved the abseil on Saturday in bright yellow workmen’s jackets (should that be workpeople’s jackets?) and it was a properly lovely day – sunny, great spirits from everyone and some very enjoyable abseiling too.

“Royal Sun Alliance celebrated 300 years of trading by falling a collective 30,000 feet for learning disability charity ENABLE Scotland on Saturday 19th June. Staff from RSA were parachuting and abseiling to raise thousands for the Scottish charity over the weekend, in what the insurance business sees as the perfect chance to give something back to the local community.

“RSA across the world is celebrating our 300th birthday, and the focus is on volunteering their time, donating gifts in kind and supporting fundraising events to benefit charities that we have a personal connection with,” Linda Welsh, Operations Manager of RSA in Glasgow, explains.”We have been supporting a variety of fantastic organisations including schools, hospices, animal shelters, victim support and now ENABLE Scotland. It’s a great way to give something back and means we benefit by engaging with the local community”.

The abseilers pictured, who carried out the daring drop on Saturday 19th, are all staff in RSA’s Glasgow company. They were joined too by friends, family and other adrenalin seekers for a day of abseiling from the formidable Titan Crane.”

Continue Reading

I’ve been spending the past few weeks finding willing abseilers – my search has taken me to the sunny banks of the Clyde and beyond, and it’s great to find that so many people remember the abseils from last year. Lots of them are up for it too and I can’t wait for the 1st of May!

But I seem to keep being told “Oh, not me. I’m not the kind of person who would do that!” So I started thinking about all of the people who’ve abseiled the Titan in the last year and all of their different stories – 16th birthday celebrations, abseiling was on the list of things to do before reaching the big 40/50/60,  a grandparent who worked on the Titan – and I realised there really isn’t an average abseiler among them. Here’s a little snapshot of some of the Titan conquerers.

Henry Wilson, 23, got persuaded by the neon lights of October’s night rave abseil. Having abseiled before but never from such a height and definitely never in costume, Henry even surprised himself by raising over £230 with his efforts. “The Titan Abseil was amazing. Between the adrenalin rush and the views of Glasgow I hit the ground and wished I could head straight up for another go!”

Patricia MacKay decided to abseil the Titan pretty much on the spot, as she works in Clydebank College and takes part in charity challenges every couple of years. “If it’s for a good cause and you’re able to do it, why not?”

And last year’s Titan success story, Ross Ward, wanted to give something back to the charity that had supported him. With an indomitable will, Ross managed to raise over £1,500 with his abseil, and is coming back for more this May! “I thought at the time – I conquered Titan. I did all this for Enable Scotland which I think are a brilliant organisation. They have done so much for me. They helped me get a job and changed my life for the better.”

Find out more about abseiling by calling 0141 225 1642, or sign up via the website.

Continue Reading

Photo by xpress.photo.co.uk

The ground vibrated with the thump of bass. Above us, the imposing figure of the Titan Crane was suddenly lit up with rows of bright green lights underneath the jib. The sound of N-Trance, Darude and Tiesto filled the air as the bus pulled up and a dark shape illuminated with strings of fairy lights and glow wire staggered out. The Titan Night Abseil had begun!

I’d been getting excited about October 3rd’s rave-themed Night Abseil for about two months, so when at 5pm on Saturday the winds still hadn’t stopped their 70mph course across Clydebank, I was gutted. With severe weather warnings across Scotland, we had hoped for the winds to die down as predicted for the evening, but no such luck. A box of glowsticks sat redundantly on the table. We called off the abseil.

Luckily, the good people at Clydebank Rebuilt and our abseil team moved mountains to help us reschedule the evening abseil for the very next day. Around 30 people were able to make the new date and the clear night, brilliant costumes and amazing sound system (you could hear it perfectly clearly even 150ft up!) made it all worth it. We don’t have a grand total yet but there were some great efforts with the fundraising, including Helensburgh man Ross Ward who raised just over £1,400! Prize-winners are listed below.

Our last remaining prize is the Best Photograph competition – we’ll be collecting photos from the abseil by uploading them to the Flickr group: http://www.flickr.com/groups/1190343@N22/pool/ or you can email them to me at kat.borrowdale@enable.org.uk. The winner will be announced on October 23rd – you have until 10am then to get your photos to us! The winner will receive a Gordon Cowan photographic experience worth £450: check out some of his work at http://www.flickr.com/photos/gordoncowan/ Gordon photographs and then paints a person or scene of your choosing to create a unique memory for you to keep. It’s a brilliant prize and we want to see your photos of the event, so please get sharing!

Thanks again to everyone who abseiled and if you didn’t get to due to the change of date, don’t worry as we will be having another night event next year and plenty of chances for you to abseil the Titan.

Winners:

Top Fundraiser: Ross Ward (raised over £1,400) wins an overnight stay for 2 at the Glasgow Radisson.

Best Rave Outfits: Ashleigh Niven, Charles Diaper and Carol Diaper all won a bottle of wine for their neon creations!

“Seasoned Professional” Award goes to two first timers, Katherine Coll and Kenny Walker. See Kenny’s abseil: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G1alMRvRnSU

Continue Reading

See our abseilers take on the Titan on August 1st 2009! These heroic folks raised around £8,000 for ENABLE Scotland and you can too – it takes £20 and 2 minutes by calling 0141 226 4541.ENABLE Scotland August Abseil 2009

Continue Reading

The weather was rough but our abseilers were tougher! Despite the intermittant rain and wind, everyone who made it up onto the Titan fulfilled their pledge and managed to do the 150ft abseil. Wanted to say a big thank you to everyone who raised money for ENABLE Scotland…. we’ve raised nearly £20,000 this year through your brave actions and tenacious fundraising.

Take a look at the ENABLE Scotland blog to see some of the crucial work we’re doing. http://www.enable.org.uk/blogs/news_blog/
It’s also a reminder of how far we still have to go in changing attitudes towards learning disability – whether it’s increasing support for people living in and around Glasgow, helping someone to overcome prejudice and underconfidence and find their first job, or piloting new schemes that will give a person receiving disability allowance more control over their budget.

Thanks to everyone who took part in the abseil – you have transformed lives.

Continue Reading

Imagine feeling that you don’t want to do anything at all. This video shows the experience of Jayne Burnett, who benefited from one of the many projects ENABLE Scotland runs across Scotland. 25,000 people over 16 in Scotland have a learning disability – we campaign to ensure that people like Jayne have the confidence to take full advantage of all life has to offer.

The £18,000 raised so far will go a long way towards ensuring that ENABLE Scotland can continue to provide invaluble services, but we still need to raise another £42,000 this year. We rely on the money raised by our supporters and are lucky to have people who are brave and generous enough to push themselves to the limit for our charity - become an ENABLE Titan today and transform someone’s life.

Continue Reading