Each year, our employees put forward their suggestions for a charity to support which are then shortlisted and put forward for a staff vote. This year, we have been proudly supporting the work of The Helen Rollason Cancer Charity.
The reason that this charity was nominated was a personal one as a member of the team was diagnosed with Malignant Melanoma which resulted in them having a number of lymph nodes removed in early February 2018. They have been visiting the Chelmsford centre ever since for treatment and so this was an ideal opportunity for us to thank the charity for all the work that they do in our local community.
Our Fundraising began back in July 2018 with our first event – The Big Battle – when the firm funded 10 places for us to take on the famous Nuclear Races course. In addition to the £500 entry fees, we also raised £315 in sponsorship. Well done to Graham, Ryan, Jack, Arran, Matthew, Josh, Mickala, Ross, Grant and Craig who had a thoroughly enjoyable afternoon in the mud.
The charity is repeating this event in September 2019 which is highly recommended. Please see their website for further details:>> Big Battle 2019
In November 2018, 16 teams gathered at Braintree Golf Club in Braintree for our annual Quiz Night. We were delighted to be joined by HRCC CEO Kate Alden on the night, who kicked off the 2nd half of the evening by telling us all about the charity and how they are dedicated to supporting people whose lives are touched by cancer through complementary therapies, counselling, support groups, research and clinical trials. The bar has now been set as this event raised £2,300 for the charity, the most we have ever raised at a quiz night. This event will return later in the year.
Duncan attended the charity’s Tower Trail in November 2018 – a 5 mile walk over fields and farmland starting at the Layer Marney Tower in Colchester.
We also registered to become a recycling point for Crisp Packets – an initiative created by Walkers. In return for our empty packets and instead of sending them to landfill, they are able to transform them into park benches, watering cans or plant pots and we are rewarded with a donation to our chosen charity – HRCC of course!
At Christmas, we supported the Chelmsford Lions Santa Sleigh collection on behalf of the Charity and Katie and her family collected donations around Chelmsford with a little help from the man in red!
We also ran two Christmas Hamper Raffles – one was given away at our December Networking Breakfast and raised £265 thanks to donations from our Professional Contacts, and one was given away to staff where we sold £365 of lucky numbers.
Early in 2019, our fundraising attention turned to Senior Manager Mark Pearson who jumped at the opportunity to take one of the charity’s Golden Bond places at the London Marathon. His training schedule saw him clocking up the miles in some horrible Winter weather, but Mark not only managed to bring it home in just over 4 hours, but he also smashed his own fundraising target and donated £2,900 to HRCC.
Our regular quiz team ‘Don Pablo’s Animals’ got in on the action in May 2019 when they attended the HRCC Corporate Quiz Night. The quiz was held at Bishop’s Stortford Football Club and ten teams took part. It was tight at the top of the score board for much of the night, but we were delighted to be crowned the winners on the night and we will be back to defend the trophy later in the year.
In additon to the complimentary therapies and support provided by the charity, they also operate 8 charity shops across the region. In May 2019, we asked staff to have a spring clean and see if they had any unwanted items such as bric a brac, clothing, shoes, bags, books and toys that could be donated, Of course, we were not dissapointed and a car-full of treasures was delivered to the Witham store. If you can’t get to a shop, do check out their ebay page for some bargains.
Finally, we hosted a Cake Sale at our Braintree office in June 2019 which saw our talented bakers fill the boardroom with a fine selection of cakes and biscuits. This event raised a final £165 for the charity and we all left the office a few lbs heavier.
We have been blown away by support this year which has meant that we have been able to donate over £7,000 over the course of the year – by far the most we have been able to fundraise to-date. Engagement from #TeamLambChap staff has also been incredible and most of us have attended a HRCC event at some point this year. We extend our heartfelt thanks to everybody who has supported us – members of staff and their families, local businesses, clients and professional contacts.
We’ve been so proud to support the work of this wonderful charity and we wish them well with their exciting future plans which include an extensive building project at the Hatfield Peveral site and an expansion of their services across the region. We’ll be following their progress with interest and supporting them when we can.
You can keep up-to-date with their latest news at: https://www.helenrollason.org.uk/
Looking ahead to 2019/20, the shortlist for our next Charity of the Year has been compiled and staff votes are currently being counted. Watch this space for our announcement coming soon…
> Posted by Katie Gardner