Good morning all 
I hope you had a lovely weekend.
Today I would like to introduce you to one of my very lovely Twitter friends who has started something quite remarkable, something good, something very worthwhile, something you can help with and benefit from at the same time!
I’m not going to say any more, instead I’m going to hand you over to the very lovely Zoe Grant from Zoeanddrew
How it all began
After watching the news and seeing the destruction on the streets of our capital city on the night of Monday 8 August much of country was left in shock. On the Tuesday morning I checked with friends in London, many I had made through Twitter, that they were safe, some witnessing first hand the mindless vandalism of their communities. I read tweets from Riotcleanup who were busy rallying support to reclaim their city and start the massive clean up. People flocked to help, armed with brooms, determined to help.
Feeling helpless as I do not live close enough to pop along and help and realising I wasn’t the only person feeling this way I had an idea of a raffle. With a large network of designer makers, artists and creative people I hoped they would support my idea. So I wrote a blogpost and tweeted the link and offers started to come in. With in 18 hours over 30 independent businesses had offered prizes and fully supported my idea. We now had a twitter hashtag and through our social media networks word spread and more support and prizes were offered.
The next step was to find a charity to support. As small business owners we wanted the money raised to help the many shopkeepers who had lost their businesses or had their shops looted and damaged in the riots. The Retail Trust seemed like the perfect choice and after speaking with them I was assured that 100% of our donation would be used to help these shopkeepers and not the big retail chains who could afford to rebuild and restock.
Now the planning had to be done. Riot Raffle was becoming a major fundraiser for the victims of the riots throughout our cities. Again the power of twitter stepped in and Zoe Brown , Managing Director of B Websites, offered to help. B Websites have built this website, organised the hosting and purchase of the domain name, aswell as making the template available to be downloaded and used by other people when they make a donation to Riot Raffle.
So we had a website, we had prizes, we now needed a logo. There were lots of suggestions of design companies and one clearly stuck out, Who Ate My Crayons. Tia, the designer behind Who Ate My Crayons, is popular within the twitter design community and has created badges for several #sbs winners in Theo Paphitis’s weekly selection of small businesses to retweet.
Riot Raffle is about a creative community coming together to support other independent businesses in a time of crisis. Today we have over 80 independent businesses donating prizes for Riot Raffle. We hope that you will support us in raising a lot of money to help Retail Trust assist the many shopkeepers who were victims of the riots and buy a ticket, or ten!
For further information :
Visit the Riot Raffle website www.riotraffle.org or contact Zoe Grant by email zoeanddrew@btinternet.com or telephone 07825 627805
Thank you.
Zoe Grant
Here are just a couple of the lovely raffle prizes on offer that might entice one or two of our lovely Brides to be, to buy a ticket or two. Alternatively, if you feel you can donate to this cause by giving of a prize that would also be very gratefully received, please drop Zoe a line, I know she will be very pleased and grateful to hear from you.
100 cupcakes donated by Coco Meli Artisan Bakers in the West Midlands.
The winner will need to be in the West Midlands and the prize can be claimed for any occassion in 2011 or 2012.
http://www.riotraffle.org/2011/08/prize-100-cupcakes-coco-meli-artisan-bakers/
£200 voucher for Hargate Hall
This can be used towards the cost of a wedding or would cover the cost of a one bedroom apartment off season, perfect for a pre wedding break or honeymoon.
http://www.riotraffle.org/2011/08/prize-200-voucher-for-hargate-hall-hargate-hall/
So…there you have it, please support this worthwhile cause if you can, either by donateing or buy buying a few hundred tickets or so 
Seriously though your participation however small would be much appreciated and you might also win someting fab too!
Thanks
Best wishes
Courtenay
