Eighty people were welcomed to a special corporate event at Arthur Rank Hospice last week (Monday 25th February). During the evening’s proceedings, the winners of the Accumulator Challenge 2018 sponsored by Arm, were announced as Taylor Vinters (50-250 employees category) and The Rathmore Club (0-50 employees category).
An impressive £13,000 was raised by the 20 companies who took part in the initiative, which ran between 1 October – 31 December 2018. Competitors had 13 weeks to generate as much money as possible from an initial £50 investment from Arm. As CEO of Arthur Rank Hospice Charity Lynn Morgan highlighted, the amount raised this year could pay for more than 27 episodes of Hospice at Home care for patients and their families who are in need of support, at what can be an extremely difficult time.
Beautiful trophies – donated by Go Glass – were presented to the winners. Nelly Munnelly, owner of The Rathmore Club attended alongside Alex Manning who helped her organise their fundraising. She explains how they raised £2,470 from one event:
“I was having my hair done here at the Hospice and Andrea came in and asked me if I’d like to take part in the Accumulator Challenge. We’ve supported the Hospice with collections in the past and several times we’ve done charity nights before. I asked Alex to help me put on a dinner.
“It was Christmas time, so we had ham and turkey and all the trimmings on a buffet. There was about 100 people who came, and they just kept on giving. Such a lot of money – they were so generous! They all gave £10 each towards the meal which went into the collection pot. We were selling wine at £8 a bottle and that had been donated so that helped too. The raffle had lots of prizes donated too, so it all added up!”
Taylor Vinters took home the trophy for the 50-250 employees category having raised £1,598. Jan Holmes, Learning & Development Manager, comments:
“We all loved the Accumulator Challenge! There was something for everybody: quizzes, there were pumpkin carving competitions and we did an art class. At Taylor Vinters we are really keen on well-being, so that fitted in really well. The pumpkin carving competition was so creative: our trainees did Nemo from ‘Finding Nemo’ and it was painted with Tippex and had fins - I had just never seen anything that creative in a pumpkin before!
“I would say to any other organisation that they should get involved, because as well as raising funds for a great organisation - which is local to us all and could help any one of your staff in the future - it brings your employees together and gives them some fun things to work on.”
Best Innovative Idea was awarded to The Wonders of Wellbeing who did a wellness event at the Hemingford Grey Pavilion which involved a Yoga session, Thai Massage and a sound-bath. Other ingenious fundraising activities taken on by Accumulator Challenge teams this year included a beginners baking class put on by Cambridge Cookery and Café; a ‘Fizz, Fun & Fitness’ event by Salon HD (the hair and beauty salon based at the Hospice at Shelford Bottom); a Bacon Butty Breakfast hosted by Pure Resourcing; and a Christmas Raffle put on by The Cambridge 13th Cubs.
It was a great evening for networking and corporate learning too, with Ed Turner, Managing Partner of Taylor Vinters sharing helpful insights gained from ‘The Zebra Project’ in a talk entitled ‘Corporate Impact: It’s not all black & white’, before the winners were announced. The project brings together business leaders, creative thinkers, academics and visionaries to shape the future world of work.
Andrea Murauskas, Corporate Fundraiser at Arthur Rank Hospice Charity, concludes:
“It was great to welcome so many of our supporters to this corporate event where we presented the Accumulator Challenge Awards. It’s been an absolute pleasure to work with local businesses whose generosity goes consistently above and beyond. I’m really looking forward to working with this year’s teams and hearing what inventive ideas they come up with to help raise vital funds towards our patient care.”
Fourteen teams signed up on the night to take part in this year’s Accumulator Challenge including Samsung, Price Bailey, Riverlite, Taylor Vinters, Savills and Go Glass.
The 2019 Accumulator Challenge will kick off again on 1 October 2019. To register your interest or find out more about what is involved, please contact Andrea Murauskas on 01223 675882 or andrea.murauskas@arhc.org.uk