Last month I was delighted to learn from Gumtree that The Butterfly Tree was to be the beneficiary for a fundraising activity, taking place in April. The aim was to upcycle an old and unrepairable Beetle and turn it into a number of unique pieces of furniture and household items.

Max McMurdo ready for action

To achieve this Gumtree engaged TV personality Max McMurdo of Reestore and a team of designers, upcyclers and bloggers to report on all the action. They had just six days to complete the task, and then the items would go on sale.

Max and some of the designers

Several of the team, including Max, worked tirelessly throughout the week, with volunteers increasing over the weekend. I was invited over to Bedford to observe the production line and meet the team, it was so exciting that I returned on the Saturday to see the items taking shape. A bed, a dressing table, chairs, lamps and wall clocks were just some of the ingenious designs unfolding.

Garden seat in the making

Gumtree are now selling the items on their Beetlemania site. All proceeds, including an incredibly generous offer from the company to match the funds raised, with be donated to The Butterfly Tree. 100% of the money raised will go to to building a much needed classroom block for the 1,050 children at River View School, where there are as many as 80 pupils per class.

Beetlemania Table Lamb

On behalf of the charity I would like to thank Gumtree, Max McMurdo and all the dedicated volunteers who generously offered their expertise and gave up their time to support our cause in Zambia.