Fundraising trio praises generosity of Northampton community in helping them raise almost £20,000 to date

A fundraising trio has praised the generosity of the Northampton community in helping them raise almost £20,000 since they began.

The JAM fundraising group, founded by Julia Harris, Ann Brebner and Mandy Lagden, started raising money for local causes ahead of the pandemic and has not looked back since.

Their latest endeavour was the second annual ‘JAMathon’, which was a marathon of fundraising events for three Northampton-based charities between September 20 and December 20.

Over the three months, the trio raised £4,500 – which will be equally split between Right Resolution CIC’s Jeevan Project, Northampton Community Sheds and Growing Together Northampton.

“It’s absolutely amazing. The support and generosity across Northampton has been phenomenal,” said Julia.

“We raised double from last year and couldn’t have done it without all the people and businesses who have done fundraisers. We’re already thinking about how we can make it bigger and better next year.”

Not only have they taken part in their JAMathon over the past few months, but they have been involved with and visited charities helping their own communities in the run up to Christmas.

Julia, Ann and Mandy organised 11 collection points across the town to help make The Spring Charity’s Christmas present pick a success. The trio donated presents and helped set up all the toys on Monday (December 18) ahead of the event too.

They also helped out at Home Start’s Christmas party, which is a voluntary organisation committed to the welfare of families with at least one child under five.

Project 16:15, which tackles poverty, have benefitted from JAM’s item donations to their recent hamper project.

Finally, two boxes of gifts were donated to C2C Social Action to be handed out at their Christmas party for the communities they serve.

“We want to say how amazing and generous everyone is,” said Julia. “They’re so eager to help. We’re excited to be growing and the more people that get to know about us, the more support we get.

“We look forward to meeting more small charities in 2024 and finding out how we can support them.”

As they are just £500 from reaching the £20,000 milestone, JAM looks forward to seeing what the new year has in store.

The trio were recently gifted a giant teddy bear by Bartella’s Coffee House, which they have named Bart after the business.

They want to incorporate Bart into their first fundraiser of 2024 and would welcome any suggestions about how to do so.

Julia wanted to wish everyone a merry Christmas from JAM, and encourage you to enjoy time with loved ones but to support others in any way you can.