Croydon’s Themed Bake-off

Posted on May 18, 2012 by

Croydon House got fully into the spirit of this year’s major events as well as Community Week with their themed  bake-off last Tuesday.

All manner of cakes and savouries sporting Olympic styling or crowned with a hint of Diamond Jubilee were brought in by staff to raise a total of £60.78 for their chosen charity, Newstraid.

The above picture shows it was a fantastic effort by all with plenty of eye catching ideas and attention to detail. A special mention goes to Ruba from NRS for her Olympic Cake. It looks far too good to cut into Ruba!

Mmmm is there just one cupcake left over for me? *hopeful face*

Posted in Cakes, Food and Drink | Leave a comment

Slough Puts on the Fancy Dress

Posted on May 16, 2012 by

Slough Group Managers

Jim Sinden and Simon Lockett aka “The Men in Black”

The managers at Slough House found a fun way to raise funds recently by raiding their dressing up boxes to find all kinds of fancy dress to make coming to work just that little bit different.

The results included assorted medics, a cowboy plus a cowgirl, an arab, a pirate, a soldier, even a nun! The Men in Black were also on hand to investigate should the odd alien appear in the office to wreak havoc and mayhem.

An impressive £879 was raised for Cancer Research along the way.

Posted in Appearance, Dress Up/Down Days | Leave a comment

Crawley Takes Up Sport

Posted on May 14, 2012 by

Donna proudly displays her medal

Crawley House have tales of past sporting prowess with more still to come…

As mentioned previously in Dispatches, Donna Brown took part in the Swimathon at her local pool at the end of April. This is an annual event held nationwide which aims to raise funds for Marie Curie Cancer Care.

Donna elected to swim 2.5 kilometres, i.e. 100 lengths of the pool. This is the equivalent of running 12.5 kilometres, so her achievement is impressive :)

Staying on the running front we have late news just in that Customer Service Assistant Sajida Sidat‘s daughter ran 4 miles for Sport Relief for Schools at the end of March. Crawley House donated £50 towards her sponsorship total.

Last but not least, Mark Simmons and Mike Moore report on an intriguing joint sporting challenge still to come:

On Friday 22nd June Crawley and Croydon are taking up the challenge of the Longest Day of Golf at Chichester golf club. The Victims (sorry I mean Golfers) will endure 72 holes over 300 shots and will cover 20 miles with 53% of the holes played having the additional challenge of water on them.

Think we’re going to need a bigger boat and a lot more golf balls.

The money raised will be divided between Newstraid and Help for Heroes.

Mark and Mike: it sounds like you’ll be well on your way to completing a 2012 Challenge in one go with that little lot!

Posted in Golf, Running, Sport, Swimming | Leave a comment

Cuppas, Trousers, the Race for Life and 2012

Posted on May 11, 2012 by

Here’s another post featuring some of the charities and events featured in the Fundraising Pack which are coming up over the next couple of months.

The ideas covered in February’s post proved to be popular, so do let us know if inspiration strikes and your Community Week plans involve any of the following:

  • Diabetes UK Care for a Cuppa Day – June 2012
  • Cancer Research UK Race for Life – May/June/July 2012
  • Wallace & Gromit Children’s Foundation Wrong Trousers Day – 29th June 2012
  • Gold Challenge & 2012 Challenge – May/June/July 2012

Diabetes Care for a Cuppa Day

What could be a better way to raise money than to hold a tea party? The Diabetes UK Care for a Cuppa website has downloadable posters and invitations, plus a quiz to help raise awareness of this often overlooked condition.

Cancer Research UK Race for Life

This proved to be a popular event last year with both novice and experienced runners. Some events have already taken place and you can find out from the website whether there’s one still to be held near you.

The races are either 5k or 10k, so this is probably only viable for those of you who already jog or run on a regular basis. Though my friend always completes her Race for Life by walking briskly!

Wrong Trousers Day

Wallace and Gromit are not only asking you to wear your whackiest trousers this year, but also wanting you to add an Olympic twist to them. Tasteful gold for a bit of bling perhaps?

Gold Challenge & 2012 Challenge

Fancy trying a new sport or three? The British Olympic Association and various partner charities have issued a challenge for you to try up to 30 new sports during 2012. Don’t worry – you don’t have to do all of them! You could tackle them as a team, or just try 5. The idea is to try each of your chosen sports for 3 hours between now and the end of December. Have a look at the Gold Challenge website for more information.

Alternatively you could try the 2012 Challenge. You or your team elect to complete 2012 minutes (just over 33 hours) of a chosen sporting activity (e.g. running, cycling, swimming) before the opening ceremony on 27th July. That works out at less than half an hour per day between now and when the Olympics start if you’re doing the challenge on your own. Or much less if it’s tackled as a team!

Looking for something else? Then the drop down Categories list to the right is another great source of fundraising ideas.

Posted in Appearance, Charity Focus, Dress Up/Down Days, Food and Drink, Running, Sport, Team Events | Leave a comment

Michael’s Blog: And Breathe…

Posted on May 10, 2012 by

Michael Jamieson

Here’s the latest guest post from our Olympic hopeful, Michael Jamieson…

It’s almost time to start competing again! We have had quite a testing last six weeks in Bath since the Olympic trials, re-laying the fitness foundations before the summer kicks off. Unfortunately, due to the monsoon weather recently, I haven’t been able to continue developing my golf game. It looks like that may have to wait until the season is finished.

I’ll be heading to the European Championships at the end of May in Debrecen, Hungary. Only five British athletes have taken their place to compete, due to scheduling and logistical issues. The Europeans will be an opportunity to compete against some of the medal and final contenders for the Olympics, so I’ll be taking it very seriously. In the wake of my performances in London in March, it’s important for me to post a fast time in Debrecen, put down a marker and create some momentum for the coming months.

From Debrecen, I’ll be travelling to Barcelona, Canet and Mallorca for further racing and training. I’m thoroughly looking forward to seeing the sun; I am beginning to develop a greyish complexion thanks to the mix of seasons we’ve witnessed recently and the chlorine.

I’ve been working with the sport psychologist again this month and it’s really helping me. Last week’s was the difference between self-belief and confidence. We came to the conclusion that self-belief is something developed from a young age, in any field, career or sport and stems from a hunger to be successful. Confidence, in my opinion, is superficial. Not many athletes possess both of these attributes. For me, confidence is difficult to develop. I take confidence from training fast and racing fast…and I think that could be it, so clearly it’s an area that requires some work!

The squad in Bath has a new recruit, a sports physiologist. One week into his post and Ben has me sleeping in an altitude chamber, which is basically a fancy tent. I am a huge fan of it and have responded well to the mountain air in previous years. The tent provides an alternative method of altitude training through living/sleeping high and training low (sea level). The tent is air tight around my bed and a generator, which sits outside the bedroom and runs a pipe through a hole in the tent, changes the composition of the air to reduce levels of oxygen, training your lungs as you sleep. I’ll be sleeping in the tent until the Games, hoping it gives me the slightest edge over my opponents and hoping I’m not evicted by my housemates before then due to the whirring sound of the generator!

Alex Dale Oen, Norwegian Breaststroker and World Champion over 100m in Shanghai in 2011, sadly passed away last week.  Alex was a friend of mine and I was in conversation with him just days before this tragic event. He lifted the World title just days after a bombing in his hometown in Norway, which killed 80 people, displaying his strength of character. Alex was a favourite for Olympic Gold this summer and at just 26 years of age, died after suffering cardiac arrest during a training camp. A stark reminder of how fragile life is. The global swimming community demonstrated its strength after his passing last week and I would urge you to watch the footage of his 100m Breaststroke victory to see the passion and patriotism he displayed. He will be sadly missed.

Michael, I was shocked to hear of Alex’s death last week. My sympathy at the loss of your friend and condolences to his family. Thanks for writing such an honest post, which gives us such an insight into all aspects of competing at the highest level in sport.

Good luck in the Europeans at the end of this month – we’ll be rooting for you! Here’s hoping your strange new sleeping habits are worth it…

Posted in Guest Post, Olympics | Leave a comment

From S to N: Get The Cyclists’ Lowdown…

Posted on May 8, 2012 by

Do you want to know more about this year’s From S to N team?

Are you itching to make a donation to help them achieve their fundraising target?

Then look no further than the sparkling new Sponsor a Cyclist page…

Posted in Cycling, From S to N, Sport, Team Events | Leave a comment

The Great Instore Bake Off

Posted on May 4, 2012 by
Cakes galore!

Hungry? Too late – they’ve gone!

On May 1st, the Instore central, account and field teams duly assembled for the “Great Instore Bake Off” for Community Week. There were two categories for entries:

  • Do it yourself – all decorations, ingredients need to be put together from scratch – No bought packets of mix
  • The Special Ones – for the not so adventurous baker, anything goes except pre-baked & packaged cakes.

All cakes, cookies and yummy treats were presented in front of a judging panel and marked out of 10 under the following categories:

  • Taste & Texture
  • Presentation
  • Creativity

Once judging was complete, all entries were put up for sale. Wendy Cane reports:

More cake!

Mmmmm – there’s more!

The Instore Bake Off was a huge success. We had 23 cakes, 1 entry of pancake rolls and 1 entry of chicken samosas.

The total so far raised stand at £92.59 with a few donations still to come in, we expect to have broken the £100 barrier by the end of the day*.

Our top judging panel crowned the Cream Horns the winner with a chocolate orange sponge a very close second.

* = the £100 barrier has indeed been broken – the amount raised now stands at £117.20.

Posted in Cakes, Food and Drink | 1 Comment

Advice From the A to B Team

Posted on May 3, 2012 by

From S to NWith less than 2 months to go until the From S to N challenge takes place, Dispatches caught up with some of last year’s From A to B cyclists for an insight into what this year’s team might expect.

Thanks goes to Ian Tallamy, IS; Mark Charlton, Communications Director; Chris Atherton, Commercial Team (all from Wakefield House); and Ian Evans (Aberystwyth) for kindly answering my questions…

Q Why did you decide to take part in last year’s From A to B challenge?

  • IanE: Looking for a new challenge – I think it was an age thing.
  • Chris: I just thought it was a great idea. I saw it as another step in the development in the Smiths News PLC as an organisation and wanted to support that.
  • IanT: I enjoy cycling. Years ago I spent quite a bit more time on the bike and wanted to get back into cycling. I had thought about setting my own challenges but when the A to B challenge came along, it fitted quite nicely with my own personal challenge of cycling more seriously and mastering greater distances
  • Mark: Because my team were organising it! But also because I’d long wanted to complete a challenge ride – and Whizz-kidz are an inspirational cause

Q How much cycling experience had you had before the challenge?

  • Mark: Well, historically lots – I used to race and I’ve ridden all over the Uk and Europe. That said, I’d not really been on my bike for five years.
  • IanT: I wasn’t new to cycling but I was a bit rusty and certainly hadn’t done anything like those distances. The furthest I had cycled was about 50 miles – compared with nearly 350 miles in total (if you include the ride to the coast at the end)
  • Chris: I had done one 4 day cycling trip with friends the previous year and had arranged something similar in May 2011 (6 weeks before the A-B ride)
  • IanE: None

Q Did you follow Andy Cook’s training plan? (if you did) How did it help? (if you didn’t) How did you go about training for the event?

  • IanT: Yes I did try to follow Andy Cook’s training plan. It’s actually quite a tough training plan and I didn’t manage to get all the cycling done that he suggested. For instance Andy suggested going out 4 times a week, but most weeks I only made 3 and sometimes only 2 sessions.
  • IanE: No, as I’m a keen swimmer and swim a mile every day. I would cycle each afternoon for an hour to an hour and a half.
  • Mark: I trained by riding to and / or from work about three times a week – simple as that! It’s 25 miles each way, so it got me fit enough and was much nicer than commuting.
  • Chris: No! I tried to get one decent ride in every week and used my other cycling trip as well so I got up to a few 60 miles rides pretty easily.

Q When you had a ‘bad training day’, what kept you motivated?

  • Chris: The thought that I don’t “do bad days”!! Punctures are difficult to take though, they make for bad days…..
  • IanT: Fortunately there weren’t too many of those, the weather was very kind to us training last year. I had a fixed training programme, so if I had to call off a day I would try and make it up next time.
  • IanE: If I set myself a goal I tend not to give up on it.
  • Mark: Beer.

 Q What was your highlight(s) of the ride?

  • Mark: The camaraderie, the people who came to support us – oh, and Chris falling off
  • IanT: Day 1 – having done the mountain climb and enjoy the fantastic scenery. The rest of the week , the great satisfaction of getting to the travel in at the end of day and knowing that we made it. For the whole week, it was great to see that every single person made it. There was a great team spirit, motivating each other to carry on with the ride.
  • IanE: The whole experience: meeting new people and working as a team. And the elation at finishing.
  • Chris: The sprints over the 5 miles of each day were always good fun if you like that kind of thing, it’s a cliché but meeting and getting to know the rest of the team was great, it was a really varied group.

Q What’s your top tip for those taking part in From S to N this year?

  • IanT: I’m doing it again this year – my advice would be to get practising, go for stamina not speed and practice a few hill climbs to help build up stamina and strength. Don’t get stressed about the distances, as long as you’ve put in the practice you will make it!
  • IanE: Get some good training in and enjoy the experience.
  • Chris: Register for it, prepare for it and look forward to it!
  • Mark: You don’t need to be super fit or super fast – take your time and enjoy it.

Q And one for fundraising?

  • Chris: Use the JustGiving text donation service.
  • IanT: Raise money for a cause you’re passionate about.
  • IanE: Try and get some friends involved and help you.
  • Mark: Beg, steal or borrow. More seriously, it’s surprising how many people will support you and it’s possible to keep fundraising after the ride too.

Q Anything you’d like to add?

  • Mark: I’m doing it again this year – so it can’t be that bad.
  • IanE: This is a great opportunity to do something for yourself and for good causes.
  • IanT: The cycle routes are well planned, avoiding most of the A road and let you take in some fantastic parts of the British countryside. The whole thing is well run and well managed, with an excellent support crew to help you along the way.
  • Chris: I’ve committed to something else during the same week as S to N otherwise I’d be on it again. Disappointed that I cannot be involved and hoping it goes well. Good luck to those who take part.
Posted in Cycling, From A to B, From S to N, Fundraising Follow-up, Sport, Team Events

Dispatches Revisits The Chalet School

Posted on May 2, 2012 by

Project Polytunnel!

In the summer of 2010 a team from Wakefield House‘ Commercial department donated their time, effort and lots of equipment towards building a working garden for children at the Chalet School in Liden, Swindon.  The school caters for up to 36 children with learning difficulties, between the ages of 3 and 11.

The team’s challenge was to construct a 10ft x 30ft polytunnel to provide a space for the children to learn how to grow their own fruit and vegetables. All 36 children at the school were also given a gardening pack, containing gloves, a trowel, a fork and vegetable seeds.

As well as the tunnel and gardening packs Smiths News also donated a bench for the children to sit on and a musical wind-chime to add to the ambience.

Rachel Cook visited the school earlier this year to see how they’re making use of their new resource…

The school has really benefitted from the addition of the poly tunnel, which now means they can grow a wide variety of fresh fruit and vegetables all year round. They grow anything from strawberries, onions, potatoes to tomatoes. The tomatoes have really thrived in the tunnel, and without this they may not have survived.

Day 2 - Job Done :)

Recently the children helped Ruth [the Forest School Leader - Ed] move the strawberry plants from the school’s allotment into the tunnel to be potted singly. The school plan to hold a table-top sale on (date TBC) outside the school to sell the plants to raise money for this year’s seeds.

Strawberries have been a real success in the garden – with the school over-run with them last summer! To help the children enjoy them at their best, Ruth took some home to make jam, and they also made strawberry jellies in school.

The school’s head teacher Kathie Bryan said:

The addition of the poly tunnel has had a huge positive impact on the children’s learning. They are able to keep dry in all weathers, and love to spend time nurturing the plants and seeds. The tunnel has also meant we are able grow lots of different fruit and vegetables all year round – so we are never short of fresh produce!

The team at Smiths News were fabulous. We had a great day, and were thrilled when the project was completed. I’m happy to say that it’s still standing!

Getting the children involved in the garden is really important to us. It’s a pleasure to help them develop their skills and learn new things outside of the classroom.

Kathie also spoke to me about the emphasis the school places on good food, which has prompted them to get involved with the Food For Life Partnership. The school has already achieved a bronze award so is now going for gold! 

Posted in Fundraising Follow-up

Worcester Pay Tribute

Posted on May 1, 2012 by

Worcester have sent in an update on their recent fundraising activities. Laura McDonald reports:

Andy Walls asked me to let you know on Sunday 22nd April, MSC Worcester raised £311 for Acorns Children Hospice.

We held a tribute day to Nigel Dean who passed away recently. We spent the day running pool and darts competitions as well as a sweepstake on the time of the first goal scored in the Man City V Wolves game.

Posted in Pub Games and Quizzes