2012 in ‘naked’ farming calendars
Northamptonshire farmer’s daughter Alex Paske is behind a charity appeal with a difference.
For the launch, she donned a pair of Union flag boxer shorts and headed off to the local pub to promote Down on the Farm 2012, a charity calendar in aid of The Muscular Dystrophy Campaign.
That evening Alex was fully clothed, but a few months earlier she and nine fellow farmers’ daughters had stripped down to said shorts to be photographed for the calendar – with only a copy of Farmers Weekly strategically positioned to preserve their modesty.
The shoot on two Northamptonshire farms threw up some interesting challenges – posing in a cattle press and covering up while mounted on horseback, to name but two.
But, according to Alex, the hardest thing was coping with nerves. “On the Saturday we were scared,” she admits, “but by the end of the weekend the girls were all fine. Only the photographer seemed a bit intimidated!”
But if nerves nearly got the better of them, they weren’t going to give up on their aim of raising £3,000 for Alex’s chosen charity, The Muscular Dystrophy Campaign. This supports the 70,000 babies, children and adults in the UK affected with the muscle-wasting disease, offering practical help and equipment grants to sufferers as well as funding research.
It’s a cause close to Alex’s heart. A lifetime family friend, farmer’s son Robert Elliott from Sawtry in Northamptonshire, has muscular dystrophy. At 19, just a year younger than Alex, he is wheelchair bound. “What upsets me so much is that he is so into his farming and his sport,” Alex says, who teaches hockey at Millfield Prep School in Somerset.
“I started fundraising for him when I was 13 by organising a local tennis tournament. Then four years ago, I organised a Harvest Ball at Rockingham Speedway with my mum and a group of friends. We raised £20,000, bought a new wheelchair and a rugby season ticket for Robert and gave the rest to The Muscular Dystrophy Campaign.”
This time, all the money raised from the sale of 500 calendars (they also did Christmas cards) will go the charity.
Evidently Alex has the gift to inspire others to fund-raising heights. The calendar started life last summer as “a fun joke”, dreamt up over a few glasses of wine with a couple of girl friends. They quickly recruited other models, while Alex got local photographer Paul Coles on board, roped in friends Chloe Ashby and Emma Pull as designers and approached local farming suppliers for sponsorship to cover printing costs.
“It took a lot of organisation just to get us all together for the shoot,” Alex recalls. “Then time to get the sponsorship and to find group shots in which everyone was happy with the way they looked.”
But the hard graft has produced a calendar that is both stylish and fun. “Paul shot in black and white and just Photoshopped the Union Jack boxer shorts for a splash of colour in each picture,” Alex explains. “Otherwise we’ve kept it very natural.”
It couldn’t have happened without Alex’s fellow unpaid models, Jess Cabbell Manners, Mollie Gardiner, Chesca Martin, Jess Martin, Annika Welman, Pippie Polson, Chloe Ashby, Sam Riddington, Emily Warrener and Jess Robins. Ditto the fee-waiving photographer and designers and, above all, her Mum, Jo, who was “a huge help”.
“Dad wanted to use a picture from the calendar to advertise his cattle press for sale on ebay recently,” Alex laughs. “He thought he might get a bit more for it.” Suffice to say, he didn’t put the picture on ebay but a shot of the girls sitting on straw bales reading Farmers Weekly hangs above the Aga in the family’s kitchen.
Nearly 50 calendars flew off the shelves in the first weekend Alex’s JustGiving website went live and news of the calendar was soon spreading by Facebook and word of mouth.
“Everyone is helping from the local shop and pub back in Nottinghamshire to friends at different unis across the country,” Alex says. “The Agrics at Newcastle, Reading and Cirencester are all getting to hear about it and I’ve kept the prices deliberately low so it’s an affordable gift for even the meanest student!”
They’ve now way surpassed their original £3,000 target and are now aiming to raise £8,000.
So any plans for Down on the Farm 2013? “We all watched the film Calendar Girls so we’re off to LA like the WI ladies!” Alex jokes. “No seriously, next year we’ll do a boys calendar too…”
Boys, you have been warned.
• Down on the Farm 2012 calendars cost £7 plus £2 p&p each from www.justgiving.com/paskey or email downonthefarmcalendar@hotmail.co.uk.
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FAMOUS FROM FARINGDON…
Meet Tom Bolter, otherwise known as ‘Mr January’, who appears In Faringdon Young Farmers’ calendar.
Cirencester student Tom is one of the brave young farmers from the Oxfordshire club, aged between 18 and 26, who posed naked for the calendar. Settings including milking, foraging, chainsawing and, of course, tractors.
It follows the success of last year’s “Boys in the Buff 2011” Calendar, which raised over £1,600 for charity.
The black-and-white calendar costs £5 with all proceeds being donated to Against Breast Cancer and FYFC.
Call 01993 867385 for more information.
SEVERN OF THE BEST…
More than 15 members of Somerset Young Farmers Severn Group have dared to bare nearly all for their 2012 calendar.
The aim is to raise cash to stage the next Somerset County Young Farmer Rally – an event which has annually raised over £15,000 for local good causes and will take place this year at Redhill in May.
The calendar features a variety of poses, ranging from the boys up on the silage clamp to the girls down in the parlour.
Not all those featured are young farmers – it shows a variety of members with other talents, from personal trainers, pet groomers and DJs.
Somerset YFC County chairman Rob Willcox, aka Mr December, initially surprised the rally planning group by presenting his own snowy naked portrait at a fundraising ideas meeting in the spring.
Apparently after the giggles subsided, Rob put out an open invitation for members 18 and over to take part in a photo shoot on his farm near Wedmore.
“I was unsure how many young farmers would accept the challenge,” Rob recalls, “but I shouldn’t have feared – we had a shed full of naked people by mid morning. I think I can safely say we all know each other a little closer in the committee now and are determined to put on the most successful rally yet!”
For more information and to purchase the £5 calendars, call 01993 867 385.
MUCK AND MAGIC FROM LOSTWITHIEL
These guys don’t look appropriately dressed for muck spreading, do they?
They’re members of Lostwithiel Young Farmers Club – and they’ve all been seeing rather more of each other than usual recently.
The club’s latest fundraising scheme has seen members stripping down for the cameras to produce their “extremely tasteful” nude calendar.
The idea came about in June when Sam Stephens was trying to think of new ways to raise money for charity.
Sam says: “It was just a throwaway idea, I can hardly believe that we have actually produced the calendar, particularly in such a short time.”
Over two weekends, hundreds of pictures were taken on various members’ farms and in pubs to produce 24 suitable shots for the reversible calendar, boys on one side girls on the other.
“I was amazed at how well the shoots went. Once members got over their initial nerves it was great fun, I feel we all know each other a little better now,” says Fleur Worden, who was also involved.
All profits from the sale of the calendar, which is priced at £5, will go to Cornwall Search and Rescue.
To order your copy, contact Alex Hutchings on 07920 132201.
A TRUE CLASSIC
This is the front cover of the Classic Countryside Girls 2012 Charity Calendar.
It’s been produced by Sarah Yarrow and features a selection of brave ladies stripping off to raise money for Cystic Fibrosis Trust.
“Cystic Fibrosis is a charity close to my heart and over the years I have raised £20,000 for the charity to support vital gene therapy and to buy equipment in Northallerton and Leeds hospitals necessary to support the care of children with cystic fibrosis,” says Sarah.
Two years ago, she made a calendar featuring fellas called “Classic Countryside Boys 2010”.
“This year we have 1,000 copies to sell.”
Calendars cost £10 each – call 07921 994365.