The run up to October was a busy time, as apart from catching up on lots of work and projects, I was also preparing for our Charity week, which we held at our head offices in Leicester from 1 – 5 October.  With the help of a few colleagues who form our “social committee” we put a plan of action into place to raise as much money as we could for some key charities and decided upon those who were holding nationwide awareness days during the month already, namely, McMillan Cancer Support, Breast Cancer Care and Guide Dogs for the Blind.

What did we do?  What didn’t we!!!  We held a cake bake off, which saw 13 sumptuous entries judged with three worthy winners, we then sold off all the entries by the slice.  We ran a “tuck shop” to get our sweetie fix, we washed colleagues’ cars, ran a raffle – where all the prizes had been generously donated either by colleagues or by local businesses who we use on a regular basis, we also held a “bring & buy sale” for unwanted goods – with any left not going to waste, we took them all down to our local Red Cross charity shop!

But the “pièce de résistance”, was the Stocks!!  Now if you can remember, though October has been bright and sunny, it has also been a wee bit cold, but that didn’t stop us!  We badgered, bullied and dragged several of our key managers into the stocks and then had great fun in soaking them through with sponges, all paid for in generous pledges from members of their own teams!  It was rather therapeutic to pick up the bucket of freezing cold water and pour it over the head of a manager or two also!!

How did we do?  Well we managed to raise £1245 in total which we split equally between the three charities, and staff consented to Gift Aid too – which as you know adds a further 25% to the total raised. 

How did I feel at the end of the week?  Fantastic!!  Because not only had I been part of this great fund raising week, I’d also run the Remploy Charity Golf day on 3 October, which through the great support of external sponsorship and generosity of all those who took part, saw us raise a further £8700 which was split equally between three charities that support children with disabilities.  These were all charities local to the Leicestershire/Warwickshire area –

Menphys, http://www.menphys.org.uk/about/ ; Tiny Tim’s Children’s Centre http://www.blackchili.co.uk/tinytimcentre/tinytims/index.html ; and the Snowball Trust http://snowballtrust.org.uk/snowballs-history/

What a great October - I'm now already planning the 2013 Charity Golf Day!!