A LOCAL man who has seen his fundraising efforts for Yorkshire Air Ambulance surpass the £700 mark has been nominated for a Pride of Barnsley award in the charity fundraiser category.
Jason Burke, 28, of High Street in Grimethorpe, started raising money for the charity after an event occurred in his area and staff stayed to talk to children despite them no longer being needed.
He said: “I wanted to help raise money for them because they landed in a park near me but didn’t take anyone with them, but they still stayed and entertained the children which I thought was fantastic.
“I’ve been raising money for quite a few months now and I’m nearly at £800, although my target is £12,000 because that’s how much it costs for them to land their helicopter on a daily basis.
“I’ve been selling raffle tickets and football cards but I have to say it has slowed down a bit since lockdown started, hopefully it picks up again soon.”
Jason also has started posting videos of him singing and dancing across various social media sites in a bid to raise spirits across the community - something that he feels has started to get him recognised more when he’s out and about in town.
“I’ve almost reached 1,000 followers on TikTok now and the videos I’ve posted on Facebook have been going really well too,” Jason added.
“I’ve definitely seen more people coming over to my fundraising page because of the videos which is good, I just want to put a smile on people’s faces.
“My favourite video is definitely the Dance Monkey one, people have started to recognise me for that in the streets and it’s nearly at 5,000 views now which is fantastic.”
Upon hearing of his nomination, Jason said: “That’s fantastic, I’m really happy with that.
“I just want to help raise money for the charity and my aim is to raise money for different charities in the future.
“I think that if there’s other people that can switch charities then why can’t I do that.”
