Two of our fantastic group facilitator volunteers organised a table top fundraiser in Shetland.
Read the full story to hear all about it, as told by our volunteers Midnight and Sanna.
Hello! Our names are Sanna and Midnight, from Shetland. Midnight is a volunteer facilitator for the Shetland group, and Sanna is a volunteer facilitator at the Dundee group.
We decided to organise a fundraising event for SWAN because they do so much for autistic women and non-binary people; we really wanted to give something back.
Both of us had been holding on to clothes, books, and accessories for quite some time, and we thought: why not host a fundraiser where people could choose what they wanted and pay whatever they felt able to?
Choosing the right venue was really important to us. Some spaces can be quite busy and overwhelming, so we wanted somewhere central, but also calm and familiar. We found a hall in Lerwick, tucked away from the bustle of the main street.
At first, we were worried that holding the event on a Tuesday might mean that nobody would come. However, we needn't have worried as not only did people turn up, they also gave more than our suggested donations!
While people browsed, we played some of Midnight's favourite a cappella songs in the background and chatted about how excited we are for the upcoming in-person Shetland meetup, which is starting this month.
We're so grateful to SWAN for all that they do: supporting autistic women and non-binary people, and delivering such insightful autistic-led training. This was our peerie way of giving back, and we hope to do more in the future.