Site Equip’s Charity of the Year for 2019 has been St Michael’s Hospice it has been a pleasure working alongside them, and over the year we have raised £5,662.01! Take a look at our Charity of the Year 2019 highlights!
Back in January, we met with the lovely Nicola & Jackie from St Michael’s Hospice who spoke to us all about the crucial and indispensable care that they provide. The Hospice enables people with a life-limiting illness, their families and carers to attain the highest possible quality of life by providing a choice of specialist care and support. These illnesses can vary between Cancer, Renal and Heart Failure, Pulmonary illnesses and Motor Neurone Disease.
Throughout the year we managed to raise a staggering £5,662.01 for the Hospice, an incredible amount which is put towards many of the integral care and support that the Hospice has to offer. To put the cost into perspective, £5 can provide drugs and oxygen for one patient for one hour, £250 can fund a patient visit by one of the hospice home teams, and £480 pays for a patient in their in-patient unit for one day.
Throughout the year the team at Site Equip participated in various activities to raise money, including small ongoing activities such as payday bake-offs, swear-boxes and penny trails to big events such as our Race Night, football matches and a 10K run. We also offered free toilet hire for any fundraising event hosted by the Hospice throughout the year so that they could put the money saved back into the Hospice.
Here are some of our Charity of the Year 2019 highlights!
One of the first (and favourite!) fundraising activities we got involved in was a Great British Bake Off inspired cooking challenge. Each month on payday, a couple of staff members would team up and bake in-house for the office and yard staff, charging £3 per plate. The dishes varied from sweet strawberry and cream scones to savoury jambalaya, from traditional Greek, Mexican & Polish cuisines to classic bacon butties & BBQs! Throughout the year we have raised over £200 from our Payday Bake-offs!
Below are some of the amazing dishes we cooked up!
We also used pre-existing days/events as an opportunity to raise money for the Hospice, including the Grand National, Pancake Day & a Pound for Patients Day. We partook in other well-known charity days such a Save The Children’s Christmas Jumper Day & Macmillan’s Coffee Morning and split the money raised between the respective charity and St Michael’s Hospice. All together we raised just over £130!
Our ongoing donations, including our swear-box & memory tree, raised £139, while our monthly customer donations brought in a generous £433!
In May we hosted our very first charity event at the Hospice itself, a Race Night filled with exciting horse races (and a dog race!), games, plenty of food & drinks and a raffle with some amazing prizes! After weeks of planning, gathering raffle prizes from our very generous donors & serving some delicious home-made paella & vegetable curry, the evening was a huge success and we managed to raise an incredible £2,000 for the Hospice! Read more..
Also in May, we had Director Amy and Sales Manager Adam Gilbert compete in the grueling 10k Basingstoke Run 2019 at Down Grange Sports Centre in aid of St Michael’s Hospice! It was a humid evening making the run all the trickier, but the two did an amazing job and passed the finish line with smiles on their faces! Together they managed to raise £70!
In June Geoff, our Managing Director organised a charity football match in support of St Micheals Hospice with help from Alton Football Club who kindly donated use of the 4G pitch & facilities. The 11 aside game was made up of various players of all ages who played for local teams in the area such as Hindhead, Alton, Farnham & Headley to name a few. The game ended in a thrilling 5-4 victory for Geoff’s team with his son Adam scoring a hat trick for their side, with a raffle, match fees & bar profits all going towards the charity we raised a fantastic £1041!
In November we had Managing Director Sonia put her creative talents to good use by hosting a 2 hr jewellery-making workshop for a group of 15 enthusiastic ladies. First things first were tea and biscuits whilst watching a demo from Sonia, who had recently completed her silversmithing course in Hatton Garden, then leading onto the group making some simple loop wrapped earrings from beads using some basic techniques. The group had great fun, walking away with not only a new string to add to their bow, but with a gorgeous pair of handmade earrings made by themselves and raising over £100 for St Michael’s Hospice!
On the 20th December, our expert present-wrappers at Site Equip HQ swapped the office for a grotto and assisted the St Michael’s Hospice team with their Happy Wrappy service in Festival Place shopping mall, Basingstoke. The festive service offered shoppers a chance to have their gifts wrapped for them by the Happy Wrappy elves, with just a small suggested donation of £2 per present. As it was the Friday before Christmas, the mall was packed out with frantic shoppers getting their last-minute gifts ahead of Christmas. We were informed that St Michael’s Hospice raised £574 that day, their highest total to date! Read more..
We hope you have enjoyed looking at our Charity of the Year 2019 highlights. We have had such an incredible year working with St Michael’s Hospice as our charity of the year, participating in some great activities that benefit not only for raising money for the Hospice but also as team building for our company, too. We would like to thank the Hospice for their ongoing support and wish them the best of luck moving forward. If you would like to donate towards this amazing cause, please click here.
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