Equity’s Charity of the Year during 2018/19
As a brilliant yearlong partnership between St Ann’s and Equity Housing Group comes to an end, Helene, Communications Officer at Equity shares the different ways they supported the hospice over the year.
We have had a wonderful year raising money for St Ann’s Hospice. It has been a real honour to have them as Equity’s Charity of the Year during 2018/19. It’s certainly been a busy one for us, looking for different and creative ways in which to raise not only money, but awareness about the work that St Ann’s does. During our visit visits to the hospice in Heald Green we were surprised to learn how much it actually costs to run it for just one day. We were also surprised, in the best possible way, when the drinks trolley was explained to us, we think it’s absolutely brilliant that they offer that for patients!
So how have we raised the money we raised? Well we’ve had a few crazy days, the Colour Run was, well, colourful! A few of us had blue stained body parts for a few weeks prior to a very hot 5km. We’ve also climbed Snowdon, which started out as a rather wet day, thankfully the sun came out for us to appreciate the magnificent views when we reached the top. For those colleagues who couldn’t make the walk we installed a treadmill in our office, very kindly lent to us from Life Leisure, and we achieved the miles whilst looking over a very busy Cheadle Hulme High Street.
We’ve shook many a bucket at colleagues and had a phenomenal response. There’s been charity Wimbeldon days, strawberries and cream in exchange for a donation, Easter extravaganzas’ and even a bit of bucket shaking at Christmas parties. Our older person schemes have also been very busy organising several fundraising days throughout the year. We have also given our time in volunteering hours to the hospice, something we aim to continue with.
As well as the fundraising we have done over the past year we also sponsored the Light up a Life service at the Heald Green hospice. It touched those of us who attended, it was a very moving service, really beautiful.
We just want to say thank you so much for the time, advice and information that the fundraising team have given us throughout the year. What has been really lovely is the fact we’ve supported such a worthwhile charity that is right on our doorstep.
We’ll see you at Christmas to do the chocolate tombola again! Best job ever!