A four-month fundraising challenge organised for local businesses to help make a difference to staff and patients at the Royal United Hospital in Bath has raised more than £17,000.
Buro Happold’s charitable advent calendar window last year | Photo courtesy of the Forever Friends Appeal
The Make It Grow Corporate Challenge, organised by the hospital’s charity The Forever Friends Appeal, saw eleven companies from across Bath and Wiltshire take part in numerous fundraising activities.
Each company that signed up received a £20 starter fund at the beginning of October last year and the aim was to compete against each other and raise the most by the end of January 2021.
The participating companies were Frank & Moon, BMT, Buro Happold, Trowbridge Ford, Metro Bank in Bath, Puregym Bath, JSBS, Avon Rubber, Touchstone, Bridges Electrical, and Curious Universe.
Patsy Gould, Corporate Officer, The Forever Friends Appeal said: “I would like to thank everyone who took part in this year’s Make It Grow Corporate Challenge.
“There couldn’t have been a tougher year to take part in this challenge and yet we had nine new companies join us and many socially-distanced and virtual fundraising activities took place during what’s been a really tough times.
Representatives from the businesses involved in the Make it Grow challenge
“Collectively the challenge has raised £17,500, which is a fantastic amount and will go towards funding projects that will make a difference to patients and staff at the RUH. We are very grateful for everyone’s commitment to our charity and the RUH.”
In recognition of the companies’ fundraising efforts, a number of awards were presented by the charity last week.
The winners were:
- BMT – won the Corporate Challenge Champion Award
- Buro Happold’s Christmas advent window won the Best Event Award
- Curious Universe won the Small but Mighty Award
- Avon Rubber won the Big Business Award
- Buro Happold won the Most Raised Overall Award
Sarah from BMT said: “I really enjoyed being part of the challenge and to help give something back to the RUH has been really rewarding personally.
“This is especially poignant to me as fantastic care was given to my husband, mum, dad and father-in-law in the last year by a number of teams in the hospital.”
Kate Miller, Lead Group Co-ordinator at Buro Happold added: “We are proud to have been involved with The Forever Friends Appeal since it started out 20 years ago, including being the headline sponsor of Ted’s Big Bake Off.
“As well as supporting their charity events, we were also involved in the design and construction of the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU), and no year has ever been more appropriate to support this amazing cause.”
The Make It Grow Corporate Challenge will return later this year, running from 1st October to 31st January 2022.
If you would like your company to be involved, email [email protected] or visit www.foreverfriendsappeal.co.uk.
