Many of us may be in collective quarantine right now, but that doesn't mean our energy and ideas have to be locked down too!

Already there are thousands of home-based activities being shared across social media to help us keep busy and productive and to help occupy little ones too. What's more, some of these also make great fundraisers!

Since the measures taken in response to limiting the spread of the Coronavirus have been implemented, charities like ours have seen an immediate halt to more conventional fundraising approaches, as well as to  our box collecting, retail income, lottery income and more. We are also very aware that many of our supporters are concerned about their income. 

Whether or not you are in a position to help raise funds, the following suggestions are nevertheless fun ways to keep busy, active and creative.

1. Run a Marathon remotely

We really feel for those who have been training in earnest for this event and for other fundraising events that has been cancelled or postponed due to the current pandemic, and we recognise that preparing for such an activity is rigorous and intensive.

If you don't want your training to go to waste, why not set yourself a 26.2 mile challenge during April and complete the course either in a day or take the whole month to do it. Just log your activity on your tracker watch or phone when you take your daily exercise. If you can be sponsored for it in support of Devon Air Ambulance then better still! Did you know you can set up a Facebook Fundraiser?

2. Row the Atlantic

If you have a rowing machine then perhaps consider setting yourself an indoor rowing challenge. If you are really keen you could even attempt to row the Atlantic - 3,000 miles! Among the benefits are not having to battle bad weather and vacuum-packed food supplies!

In 2019 the Astro to Atlantic team rowed the Atlantic for Devon Air Ambulance raising an incredible £46,618.32. We don't expect every one of our rower supporters to raise such sums, but every little helps.

3. Spring clean to help stock our shops

While our shops are closed for the time being and we cannot accept donations at all - not even left outside as these will be removed by local cleansing operatives - we absolutely welcome donations of clothes, toys, books, films, bric-a-brac and furniture the moment we open again.

If you find you have a little more time to sort through the garage, the wardrobe and the toy box, please do hold onto those items until we reopen our doors - we would be very grateful to receive them.

4. Keeping the kids creative

Get the kids to draw us a picture, or there are colouring sheets on our website you can print out or download and add to a paint programme on a tablet. Don't forget to send them to us to share on our social media pages as well - we'd love to see them. There are all sorts of materials on our schools site to assist with learning. Take a look.

5. Make a routine task more meaningful

Take on our 10-tick challenge. It’s very simple: write down a list of 10 things you would like to or have to do, such as cutting the lawn, clearing that cluttered spare room or other household tasks. Then donate a £1 to us for each task completed. Or why not challenge the kids and share the £1 with them so for each task they complete they get 50p and so does Devon Air Ambulance.  

If you take on the ticks we’d love you to share your photos. Drop us an email at [email protected] and we can also send you an electronic certificate which you can share to say you have completed the challenge too!

We'd love to here your quarantine-friendly fundraising ideas! Email them to us at [email protected] and we'll share the most original ideas on our social media channels!