You can now help ETSETH right now as you read this

We have now put a "Donate" button to the right of this posting which means you can help us without moving.

If you have a Paypal account it's a doddle but you can also use your debit or credit card using the secure system. We welcome anything you can give, whether it's a pound or a grand. And every single penny will go towards helping with the projects or the very people we are working with. And we want this to be completely transparent so we are looking for an accountant who would give an hour or two each month to verify payments and receipts. Unlike other charities we have no overheads, no staff to pay, no hidden expenses. Everything we use has been given.

So let me tell you how we have helped apart from plastering, painting and decorating and the other necessary work like elecrics and carpentry. We havet tried to add those personal touches that were missing and, although inexpensive, have been beyond the immediate reach of those we were helping. A painting on a wall: a football signed by the local team, a rug on the floor.

The difference it's made has just been unbelievable. It's brought pride and enjoyment. It's brought a new lease of life. And you can be part of that because the more we receive the more we can give. And they say it's better to give than receive. I'll tell you what it does do. It gives you a warm feeling and hopefully i;'s make you smile. And that smile might just brighten someone else's day. And perhaps that "someone else" will say a kind something to another and so it goes on.

Tell you what. If you give way to someone when you are out driving watch that person. In nearly 70% of cases they'll give way to someone else. And even those who don't give way in turn have found to be happier than before someone let them into the traffic.

So all you have to do is click on the "Donate" button. It takes just a couple of minutes and will heklp someone locally in need. . . . .

. . . . and make you feel 7 ft tall!

Want to set up your own group then just e-mail me now. E-mail: etseth@hotmail.co.uk

Have a really good day.

Jamie

Dinner with Industry at the Dragon Hotel where I was guest speaker

I spoke at the Bright Futures Society Dinner with Industry last Tuesday evening at the Dragon Hotel. It was a great evening and an opportunity for me to tell a large group of people about ETSETH.

Bright Futures is the Swansea University Society that aims to give under-graduates life and employment skills. Held at the Dragon Hotel 70 under-graduates paid to attend with 30 guests from all fields of industry. There is an almost speed-dating element as the students talk to the guests on their table then move after each course. They have the opportunity to ask questions and present themselves to up to 12 business people during dinner plus mingle at the champagne reception.

 The master of ceremonies for the evening was Chris Wilding, the Society’s President with 2 guest speakers. Jackie Jobes, who graduated last year from Swansea University was a committee member with Bright Futures and now works as a Regional Development Officer for the National Organisation. She spoke of the problems she’d experienced in her first two years as an under-graduate and how Bright Futures had changed her life around. It was a down-to-earth talk that many students could relate to: it presented them with the opportunities open to them.

At the after dinner networking both students and businesses came forward to support me with offers to help in different ways. I hope they are as eager when I call them back.

Dinner with Industry was a great success for both under-graduates and their guests taking away good contacts. The evening proved that we should be proud of our young people.

How ETSETH Started

 I'm Jamie Denyer and I must tell you I've been asked to speak to about 90 university students and 30 business people at the Dragon Hotel in Swansea at the Dinner for Industry event. I'm really chuffed!

ETSETH is a project I started I January 2009 (great timing Jamie, right at the pinnacle of the credit crunch) and through it I’ve discovered that by using the skills and talents that we all possess, we can make a change in someone’s life so massive, so meaningful and so magnificent that I wonder why I hadn’t done it before.

“Enlarge the spirit, encourage the heart” has become my motto and my mindset. It’s how I live each day .If you do a good deed or something nice for someone then you “enlarge their spirit” that will then “encourage their heart” to do something nice for somebody else – and so the pay it forward domino effect continues. I love doing it and this is how I started.

I phoned up a reporter at the South Wales Evening Post and explained that I’d like to plaster a room free of charge for deserving families. Add together the strange offer/request and my London accent and I don’t know whether she believed me or thought I should be sectioned. Luckily enough she believed me and exclaimed it was a fantastic idea. She ran an original article and told me to contact her when I’d chosen my first make-over. In her first article she’d explained the concept and asked people to send in a letter to nominate someone they thought deserving. And so I waited.

I was prepared for what I thought would be written in those letters . . . . but I wasn’t prepared enough! Unfortunately the content in some of them was horrific and harrowing: to say I was hit emotionally would be an understatement. And it broke my heart that I couldn’t help them all straight away.

So after careful deliberation between my wife and myself I chose a project. The recipient was a man called Gareth, a 69 year old who had suffered a brain tumour. He spent most of his time in his kitchen watching a black and white TV with a rayburn cooker for warmth. He had to live in his kitchen because his living room was, well, DEAD!!!

The ceiling was falling down in places, walls all rough and flaking paint. Sections of the plasterboard were missing above the door (which let in a terrible draught) so it was ETSETH to the rescue.

Gareth’s daughter has nominated him and he knew nothing about what was going on or what was about to happen. It felt amazing when I went around and talked to Gareth, had a cup of tea (no sugar, I’m sweet enough!) and told him the good news.

 And so the first ETSETH project had began. It was a long and full day, I’ll grant you, but I did it with a smile on my face. Of course it was hard work but this kind of job was “heart work”.

Once I was finished, the newspaper ran a follow-up story on Gareth’s project and as a result a flood of nominations came in as people could see what it was that I was doing. And because of that the project got more exposure. So after the first three makeovers things really started to take off: and help came in through many different avenues. The most surprising and welcome was from a guy called Kelvin and his colleague Warren of Selco in Llansamlet. Suddenly they began donating building materials I needed each month. And they have done s ever since. They are big guys with bigger hearts. I also received an offer of a 7-page website for a fraction of the cost from a guy called Andrew Downie in Wind Street.

Vinyl vehicle graphics of the project logo were donated by a lady called Sharon Perks of Signs Express in Llansamlet. I had printed and embroidered given by two different companies. Firstly, Steve of Personally Yours in Gorseignon High Street and James at J & S in Tycoch, A great result all round.

On top of all of that things were moving forward on the labour front too. Other trades men and women that I’d got to know through paid jobs got to know what it was that I was doing and offered to help. So before I realised it, plasterer Dean Colclough and  apprentice, carpenters Mike & Chris Jones together with Steve Hollands. There was also building and carpentry work from Peter Ryan and Gareth. Painting was provided by Emma Lizkger and electrics by Andrew Hooper. So from all that I think you can see that things were getting rather lively.

It’s very hard to put a negative spin on the entire situation with all these lovely people helping and I have nothing but gratitude for them all. The only glitch is the temporary “feel good factor” that has affected some people. Some trades-people see what I’m doing, get the “feel good factor” and offer their services. When I get back to them a couple of days later they say they’ve thought it over and can’t help for one reason or another. But “hey ho”. If that’s the only downside then I’ll live with it. So long as I have the people beside me that are there already then it’ll be tickety boo!!

You see,the reason I started this and ciontinue to do so is because of the change that you can make in someone's life. There will be the obvious changes that will be evident straight away: but btrust me, therte will be a bundle of changes you never even thought possible, and that's whereb the beauty lies.


Every single one of my projects are worthy and I learn and take something from each one of them . Gareth was my first and I will tell you about some more . . . . starting next time.