When taking the
rubbish matters
We have a charity group called the Macmillan
Mascots who are responsible for coming up
with innovative fundraising ideas and we try
to raise as much money as possible for The
Horizon Centre, currently being built near to the
Royal Sussex County Hospital in Brighton. Set
to open in early 2016, the centre is designed
with input from people affected by cancer.
One of our ideas this year was to clean up Brighton and
Eastbourne beaches.
More than £200 was collected from the public by our staff,
who donned emerald green Macmillan t-shirts while carrying
collection buckets and we spent the day picking up as much
litter as we could find. We had two teams with representatives
from all our offices attending each beach.
Amusing items collected included a pair of pants, a shopping
trolley and a seagull skull. Our firm allows each member of staff
one day a year to volunteer and this is part of our corporate
social responsibility.
We try to come up with one fundraising activity per month as a
minimum. Ideas for the rest of this year include a car wash, an
office to office bike ride and a car boot sale and this is additional
to our monthly dress down days.
As well as being the firm’s PR manager, I am also the chair of
the Macmillan Mascots and know that all our staff feel lucky
to be able to use a working day to volunteer. Macmillan kindly
supplied us with ponchos when we went out but thankfully the
weather was glorious and all of us enjoyed getting some sunny,
fresh air while we picked up litter – although it has to be said
that the beach was pretty clean – but, we did our bit and filled a
few sacks full of debris.
We were lucky to have been assisted by Brighton and Hove
City Council and Eastbourne Borough Council who were a great
help, providing gloves, litter grabbers and sacks. They also
spread the word about what we were doing via social media.
Our team of volunteers was also extremely grateful to be revived
with free tea and coffee
from The Tempest Inn ( 2vV