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A
new twist on corporate events or a great way to raise money for charity,
whichever way you view Roto Frank's
latest hospitality event, one thing is certain; our industry has never
seen anything like it before.
On
the instigation of Operations Director, Adrian Vicker, Roto organised
and sponsored a 7-day trip to Morocco for ten members of the fenestration
industry. While other companies might have followed the well-trodden
golfing path by visiting the country's many golf courses Roto decided
to do things a little differently by organising a tour of the country
on motorcycles.
Adrian explains, ‘Being a keen biker myself, I was aware that there
were many like-minded people in our industry who never get the chance
to mix on a biking level, other than the occasional chat when we happen
to meet up. In keeping with Roto's innovative approach to the industry,
I decided to break the traditional mould of golf as the corporate hospitality
event by providing the industry's bikers with a chance to meet up and
ride together.
‘I must admit that my first thought was not a week away, and certainly
not a tour of Morocco, but when I met Nick Sanders of Moto Challenge,
the idea did not seem so far-fetched and the plan was hatched.
‘I also wanted to make the trip something more of a hospitality
event, so all of the riders gained sponsorship from friends, families
and colleagues to help raise money for the BBC Children in Need appeal.’
In addition to Adrian and official guide Nick Sanders, the group included
nine other bikers from the fenestration industry. They were Brian Britch
(Ashton Windows), Colin Dixon (Roto Frank), Martin Grae (BKV), Ken Jackson
(Quality Windows), Ian Lewis (Thermatru), Barry McMahon (Burnden Group),
Dean Murphy (Roto Frank), Peter Rice (Planet PVC) and Phil Spooner (Spooner
Brothers).
With the majority riding road bikes, concerns over Morocco's roads were
soon dispelled and the riders covered almost 1900 miles in 7 days. The
tour took the group from Granada in Spain, to Fez and Ait Benhaddou,
before the return to Granada. It included the Rif and Atlas Mountains,
the Todra Gorge and the Sahara Desert, as well as an unplanned 60-mile
police escort, courtesy of a Moroccan police motorcyclist.
Adrian concludes, ‘The trip has been successful for so many different
reasons, not least for the great company and the experiences we have
all shared. I can see the 'Roto Road to...' tour becoming a permanent
fixture in our annual hospitality event calendar.’
In all, the group raised an admirable £5,500 for the Children
in Need appeal and returned home with new friends and a host of enjoyable
memories.
Tel: 01788 558600
Lister
Trade Frames
of Stoke went all pink at the end of October to raise money for the
Breast Cancer Care charity.
Friday
28th saw the company hosting a ‘Wear it Pink’ day for all
its staff who in turn got themselves sponsored by friends, colleagues
and customers. Lister also put on a bit of a competition to spice up
the event by offering a bottle of Pink Champaign to the Pinkest Person
on the day.
The ‘Wear it Pink’ website can be found at http://www.wearitpink.co.uk
and highlights the plight of women facing this disease and what we can
all do to help them. The world of medicine and science has taken giant
steps forward in our lifetimes, yet one women in nine will still develop
breast cancer and although survival rates are improving, too many of
these women will die from the disease.
The site makes a very important point about this statistic: ‘just
think for a moment, we all know nine women. Mother, sister, friend,
girlfriend, colleague and the girl that smiles when she serves you your
coffee each morning. Statistically one in nine of these women will be
affected by breast cancer at some point in her life. Think of it like
that and it’s impossible not to want to help in some way.’
Lister’s staff not only raised over £1100 on the day but
they also had a lot of fun doing it. Dean Shelley, one of Lister’s
Order Processors, really got into the spirit of things by shaving his
head bald and then painting himself luminous pink. This helped him to
raise a lot money and he also won himself the bottle of pink bubbly.
With the Breast Cancer Campaign receiving no financial support from
the government it relies solely on the efforts, commitment, enthusiasm
and hard work of its volunteers and fundraisers, so Lister’s event
was very much appreciated.
Contact Lister Trade Frames 01782 205605
Email: sales@listertf.co.uk
Veka
Workers Chip in for the Chopper...and Plough Cash into Kids' Farm
Veka
employees and suppliers turned golfers for a day to raise over £1,500
for two of Lancashire's charities.
The
event, now held annually at Burnley Golf Club, raised £600 each
for the Lancashire Air Ambulance Service and the Children's Adventure
Farm Trust. A further £355 from a raffle held during the presentation
meal also went to the Lancashire Air Ambulance Service after the Golf
Club Captain was invited to choose a charity.
Last week both organisations' representatives visited Veka to receive
the cheques. The £1,200 was raised from a number of Veka's suppliers
sponsoring a hole each for the competition.
The Children's Adventure Farm, which provides holidays and respite care
for disabled and disadvantaged children, has benefited from Veka events
in the past.
The Farm's Fundraising Manager Alistair Laing, receiving the cheque
this week, said the charity, based in Lymm, Cheshire, needs to raise
over £650,000 a year with no government or statutory funding at
all.
Lancashire Air Ambulance Charity Chief Executive Lynda Brislin said
the service undertakes three or four missions every day around the region.
It needs to raise £1.2million a year to keep its one craft in
operation and it too depends 100% on charitable support.
6,000 Alcoa Volunteers in 27 Countries Work to Promote Safe and Healthy Children October 15-22, 2005
In
November ,
more than 6,000 thousand Alcoa employees
in more than 185 communities around the world volunteered their time
as part of the second annual Alcoa Worldwide Week of Service, a volunteer
event focusing on safe and healthy children and families. Employees
from 27 countries volunteered for projects such as:
-- Providing at-risk children with breakfast, homework help and mentoring
to ensure they are ready to learn at East Geelong Public School in Point
Henry, Australia;
-- Repairing playground equipment to make them safer in the Krasnaya
Presnya district in Samara, Russia;
-- Constructing a laundry facility for the residents at Husnul Khotima
Elderly Home and painting the Mytyl School Foundation for children with
disabilities in Paranam, Suriname;
-- Repairing and restoring Byhalia Middle School, in Byhalia, Mississippi,
USA, which was identified by the State as being in critical need of
repair. Despite its physical condition, the school welcomed evacuees
from Hurricane Katrina.
-- Helping young students with face-to-face communication, computer
skills, and learning to speak another language, at Lu Jia Zui Special
Education School in Shanghai, China;
-- Putting Alcoa's environmental principles to work with the Green Sparrows,
a young children's environmental group in Worms, Germany. Alcoans are
planting saplings, clearing waterway banks and cleaning a courtyard
with the children.
In addition to the hands-on activities of thousands of volunteers, Alcoa
recognised nonprofits/non-government organisations (NGOs) for their
service to communities.
'Investing in Alcoa's communities extends beyond employment and financial
considerations to the health and safety of children and families who
live and work there,' said Alain Belda, chairman and chief executive
officer of Alcoa. 'Our Worldwide Week of Service focuses our efforts
globally and draws public awareness to the critical needs in each community,
and to the people who make a difference.'
While Alcoa employees have been volunteering in their communities for
decades, Alcoa's programmes that began in the past three years - ACTION
(Alcoans Coming Together In Our Neighbourhoods) and Bravo! - formally
recognise and encourage teams and individual employees with grants to
the organisations they serve. In 2004, Alcoa employees volunteered nearly
300,000 hours in the Bravo! programme and provided more than 20,000
hours of community service in the ACTION programme.
Alcoa matched these efforts with grants of $2 million to the local NGOs
employees served, representing a 39% increase over 2003 grants for employee
engagement programmes.
Taking Action is an annual weeklong event that unites Alcoa's employee
engagement efforts around the world and focuses attention on critical
issues such as education, the environment, health, and safety. For more
information on Taking Action events around the globe, visit the Community
section of http://www.alcoa.com
under Employee Volunteerism.
Glazing
Industry Comes Through its Toughest Test Yet
More
than 70 leading professionals from the glazing industry have battled
their way through appalling conditions to raise more than £15,000
for charity. Facing driving rain, gales and numerous obstacles, the
14 teams taking part in the recent Manchester
Network Walk battled their way forward to show breathtaking
courage and resilience in the face of almost insurmountable adversity.
Covering
an extraordinary 1.5 (one point five) mile course in the centre of Manchester,
the sturdy and steadfast participants struggled through no less than
9 pubs and bars while facing a number of extreme difficulties, such
as being forced to drink at least a pint of beer in each, and even being
fined for such crimes as holding the glass in the right hand. Swearing
swelled the coffers still further, with many of the walkers having to
visit the strategically placed ATM machines that happened to punctuate
the route.
Mike Crewdson (pictured), organiser of the epic, was full of admiration
for the participants: ‘By doing what the glazing industry does
best - meet, drink, and talk rubbish - we have managed to raise what
will hopefully become £20,000 when we have received all the pledges
for the Hope House Children's' Hospice, an incredibly worthy cause that
more than justifies the hangovers suffered by the majority of those
taking part. It's a tough job but someone has to do it.’
In addition to pledges made to take part in the event, fines and various
charges were imposed by 'Prefects' who were delegated with the task
of steering their teams from place-to-place, but even more so to extract
cash for any infringement of the sometimes rather complex rules.
Concluded Mike: ‘Never have so many otherwise intelligent, responsible
and successful people, behaved so badly in order to do so much good,
for so many needy children. I would also like to thank all of those
people who could not make it on the day, but made donations regardless.
Well done to all!’
Those with a strong stomach may view photographs taken during the event
by visiting this
page.
For those of you who have already made pledges, please send your contributions
in as soon as possible to ensure a speedy transfer to Hope House. For
anyone else wanting to make a donation to the cause, no matter how big
or small - every little helps, there is still time!
Please make cheques to: GM Fundraising, and send to c/o Radius Plastics
Ltd, Unit 2 Sandwash Close, Rainford, St Helens, WA11 8LY. Mike Crewdson
may be contacted on 07801 622575, email mike@radplas.com.
Avocet
Helps Raise Over £4000 for Charity
Avocet Hardware has helped to raise money for charity in a recent fundraising initiative. Together with other local businesses in Brighouse, a total of £4080 was raised for Macmillan Cancer Relief which helps people who are living with cancer. Employees were encouraged to bring just one pound to work and donate it to the cause.
Avocet's
fundraising team meeting Radio Huddersfield Home FM
Two
of the pioneers of the fundraising effort, who were interviewed on local
radio Huddersfield Home FM, are employees at Avocet who have both been
affected by the disease. Technical Manager, Dave March successfully
overcame lymphatic cancer ten years ago and recently celebrated his
wedding. Health and Safety Manager Veronica Hills has experienced losing
a colleague to cancer in recent years and both were eager to support
the charity.
‘We are delighted to have taken part in such a worthwhile cause
and to have helped to raise such a large amount of money,’ comments
Stephanie Wright, Marketing Categories Manager at Avocet. ‘The
scheme was organised by Dave and Veronica who both believe passionately
in the work carried out by Macmillan Cancer Relief for patients and
their families.’
While
Lister Trade Frames has been busy
this year working on new projects and receiving awards, the company
has not lost sight of the importance of supporting the local community
in charity events.
Mike
Bacanin, one of Lister's business development managers recently took
his classic Mustang 2 + 2 out for a special run to help raise money
for the Donna Louise Trust. The Trust provides a community nursing team
who provide respite care and support to life limited children and families
within their own homes. The Trust makes no charge to families for any
of its services and as a charity is entirely self-supported and dependent
on voluntary contributions from individuals and events like this.
Mike’s pride and joy, the 1966 Mustang, is a highly prized vehicle
these days, having a V8 engine with a very distinctive sound and a top
speed of over 120 MPH. However there is a price to pay for this beast,
fuel consumption is just 16 miles to the gallon. Fortunately this event
wasn’t a race, and everyone had a great day admiring the cars and
raising funds for this very worthy cause. Over £3000 was raised
for the trust at the event.
Despite Mike’s love of the Mustang and his obvious devotion to
it, he is adamant he won’t be using it for customer visits just
yet. Apparently Lister isn’t prepared to cover the petrol bill.
Tel: 01782 205605
Web: http://www.listertf.co.uk
Web: http://www.donnalouisetrust.org
West
Yorkshire Windows Raises £11,700 for Charity
Heal,
a UK based charity supporting orphans in Sri Lanka, benefited by £11,700
after West Yorkshire Windows held
a Charity Ball and auction on 9th July 2005. ‘It was a superb evening
for 160 guests, made up of our suppliers and customers,’ explains
Matthew Glover, West Yorkshire Windows's Managing Director.
Charity begins at home and for one supplier, Tina Birkenshaw, Sales
Director of Oakland Glass, it certainly did. Tina's reward for her winning
bid of £6,750 in the auction is a stunning P shaped conservatory
donated by West Yorkshire Windows.
Tina comments: ‘Although I exceeded my budget on the night I was
happy to support such a good cause - and get a new conservatory for
my home. Oakland Glass supplies glazed units to West Yorkshire Windows.
We supported their chosen charity by taking 20 people to the ball. It
was an enjoyable evening.’
Matthew adds: ‘The evening exceeded all our expectations. The money
we raised for Heal will be used for helping feed, clothe, educate and
provide a bit of love to the children of the HEAL orphanage in Guntur
in India.’
Tel: 01924 881920