Christmas Charity Campaign Raises Over £1000

November 27, 2018 8:34 pm

GFM ClearComms Christmas Charity Campaign

Here at GFM ClearComms we love to get into the festive spirit near Christmas and this year was definitely no exception with the launch of our ’12 Days Till Christmas’ charity campaign, whereby every day from December 13th up until Christmas Day we held a charitable event in aid of a different local charity; which helped raise over £1,000 and resulted in staff donating lots of clothes, food and toys to some amazing causes.

12 Days Till Xmas…

To kick start our charity campaign we decided that rather than sending out Christmas cards, as we always have done in the past, this year we sent out e-cards and then donated the money saved from not sending out actual cards to the Essex & Herts Air Ambulance – who provide a free life-saving air ambulance emergency medical service for the critically ill and injured in Essex, Herts and the surrounding areas.

11 Days Till Xmas…

On the second day of our charity campaign we took part in national Christmas Jumper Day with all of our staff donning their favourite festive knitwear as well as donating money to Save the Children UK, who help improve the lives of children through better education, health care, and economic opportunities, as well as providing emergency aid in natural disasters, war, and other conflicts.

10 Days Till Xmas…

On the third day a team of volunteers kindly took donated clothes and a monetary donation from the company to buy food and hot drinks to give out to the homeless in Colchester.

9 Days Till Xmas…

On the fourth day yet more wonderful volunteers from our team did litter picking in the nearby area in support of Essex Wildlife Trust (EWT). The company also donated £10 per volunteer to this amazing cause. EWT is Essex’s leading conservation charity, which aims to protect wildlife for the future and the people of the county.

8 Days Till Xmas…

On the fifth day we held a Cake Bake fundraiser whereby all proceeds went to MS-UK. The standard of baking as extremely high, which was highlighted by the fact that despite there being many cakes in reception at the start of the day they had all disappeared by the afternoon! MS-UK was established in 1993, and is a small national charity dedicated to empowering people affected by multiple sclerosis to make the most of today, and live life to the full.

7 Days Till Xmas…

On the sixth day we all dressed up in our finest pointy hats and pointy ears for National ‘Elf Service’ Day in support of The Colchester and Ipswich Hospitals Charity. This charity event helped raise money for the charity and raised many laughs from people in their fetching attire. This charity relies on the generosity of donations to improve facilities, fund new equipment, provide additional services, support staff development and initiate local medical research and innovative projects at The East Suffolk and North Essex NHS Foundation Trust.

6 Days Till Xmas…

On the seventh day we held a company wide raffle for £250 of shopping vouchers at just 50p per ticket. The winner was picked at our Christmas Party, which took place that night, and of course all proceeds went to Barnardo’s. Barnardo’s is the UK’s largest children’s charity and they help transform the lives of vulnerable children and young people through its services and financial support.

5 Days Till Xmas…

On the eight day we had hot chocolate with marshmallows on sale in reception including a Christmas biscuit competition with all proceeds going to St Helena’s Hospice. Lizzie Deed from St Helena also kindly visited our offices to judge the competition in true ‘Bake-Off’ style, with Lance Harrington from our IT team coming out on top and receiving some well-deserved prizes for his efforts.

4 Days Till Xmas…

On the ninth day we donated all of our unused uniform to TEECH Charity, which distributes clothing, toys and shoes to areas of Eastern Europe to help dramatically improve lives and living standards.

3 Days Till Xmas…

On the tenth day of our campaign we took donations of baby toys and items to Colchester Baby Bank who help support local families in need who have young children.

2 Days Till Xmas…

On the eleventh day we took all of our coat rail donations that staff had kindly been donating in our reception throughout the campaign to Beacon House – a local charity that was established to help homeless people, those in insecure accommodation and those at high risk of homelessness.

1 Day Till Xmas…

On the last day of our campaign we took donations of food and toiletries to the Colchester Food Bank. The foodbank is part of a nationwide network of foodbanks who work to combat poverty and hunger across the UK by providing balanced emergency food and support to local people who are referred to them in crisis.

Christmas Day…

Bringing the campaign to an astounding conclusion on Christmas day our Contact Centre Manager Justin Stone walked a staggering 55 miles from Colchester to London to fundraise for mental health charity Mind. Justin is aiming to raise £2,500 and it is still not too late to make a donation to support Justin, to do so please click here: https://bit.ly/2QhCRrv.

Commenting on our charity initiative CFO Rachael Willis stated, “We are proud to provide a variety of UK charities with our contact centre, marketing and fulfilment services; however, our interest in the charities we support goes beyond just working with them and we have and will continue to hold events like this to help these great causes. Everyone at the company has thoroughly enjoyed this campaign and it was extremely rewarding to be able to support local charities at this time of the year. We would like to thank all of our amazing staff who made this charity initiative possible and everyone who supported our events.”

To see some of the best highlights of our Christmas charity campaign click on the image below now: