Gateley gives staff a dressing down to support charity

LAW firm, Gateley has handed over a cheque for £15,000 to Marie Curie Cancer Care.  The money is the result of the firm’s annual fundraising in support of the charity.

Each year the 800-staff at the firm nominate one national charity they want to help. This is in addition to raising cash for a number of regionally nominated charities in each of its eight UK office locations.  

To raise funds for Marie Curie, Gateley employees took part in a host of activities throughout the year including a firm-wide bag collection which helped raise around half of the final total.  Staff across all offices were encouraged to bring in their old clothes, shoes, books and toys, with each bag being worth £20 to the charity.  

Staff also paid to take part in monthly charity dress-down days and in March this year, Gateley volunteers gave up their weekends to undertake Marie Curie cash collections in town centres for the charity’s ‘Great Daffodil Appeal’.  

Ruth Armstrong, a partner in the firm’s Birmingham office and who heads up the CSR activity, said:  “As a firm we have raised more than £70,000 this year for charitable causes and approaching £2m in the last 10 years.

“I’m immensely proud of the enthusiasm our teams have shown towards all of our fundraising initiatives and we’ve had a great deal of fun raising money for Marie Curie this year.”

Arun Sharma, corporate manager for Marie Curie added: “We are very grateful to Gateley for the support they have given Marie Curie through a wide variety of fundraising activities throughout the year.  This fantastic donation is greatly appreciated and the amount raised is equivalent to 750 hours of Marie Curie nursing to terminally ill patients in their own home.”

Gateley staff have nominated the Make a Wish Foundation as their national charity for 2012/13, while the Birmingham team will be raising money for the Queen Elizabeth Hospital Cancer Appeal.

University of Wolverhampton goes a fairway to support good causes

UNIVERSITY of Wolverhampton staff teed up more than £1,000 as part of its annual charity golf day.

The annual event, held at Perton Golf Club, featured 18 teams made up from staff, businesses and partners.

This year the event helped raise money for the Mayor of Wolverhampton’s charity appeal, which this year supports Compton Hospice, the Wolverhampton Branch of the Alzheimer’s Society and The Acute Medical Ward for Dementia at the city’s New Cross Hospital.

Mayor Bert Turner accepted a cheque for the £1,300 from Paul Hampton, who organised the golf day, and Steven King, of Wolverhampton Audi, the main sponsor of the event.

Mr Hampton, from the university’s School of Technology, said: “It was a great day and nice to be able to bring together people at the university with businesses and other partners for good causes. I’d like to thank all those people who were involved and all those companies which were so generous by pledging support, sponsorship or prizes.”

Teams taking part included one representing the Office of the Vice Chancellor alongside teams from Rudells Jewellers, Lend Lease, Thomas Vale, DMW, Cardinal Griffin School in Cannock, Severn Trent Water, Mott MacDonald, WMCCE, CDL and Star City.

Belly Flop challenge lifts Kraft’s fundraising efforts

 
KRAFT employees at Cadbury’s Bournville plant helped to raise more than £8,000 for the Acorns Children’s Hospice by organising an event at Harborne Pool and Fitness Centre.

The ‘Belly Flop Splash’ challenge, which involved 38 employees split across six teams, saw participants swim a combined distance of 28,800 metres.

The teams had hoped to raise £5,000 for the hospice, based in Selly Oak, however, overwhelming public support combined with additional money raised from cake sales and raffles, meant the final total reached almost £8,300.

As part of the company’s cashmatch initiative, Kraft Foods contributed £1,400 to the total.  

With the money raised from the ‘Belly Flop Splash’ challenge, Kraft Foods has now donated over £13,000 to Acorns in the last 12 months alone.
 
Elinor Eustace, Corporate and Partnerships Manager at Acorns Children’s Hospice, said: “We would like to thank everyone at Kraft Foods for their continued passion, enthusiasm and support over the past 12 months. We have worked closely with the company for a number of years now, and are looking forward to working with them again in the future.”