Company’s weekend challenge raises thousands
09 Dec 2020
A corporate charity effort dreamed up one Friday afternoon raised more than £2,600 the same weekend thanks to a determined bunch of workmates.
Staff at Electronics Direct Ltd, Sheriff Hutton, walked, ran, cycled and even paddle-boarded their way to raising the money for York Against Cancer.
The electronic components distributor celebrated its 21st anniversary last month. It made us its charity of the year because of the help we’ve given to friends and family down the years, including current support for the mother of one of the team.
Workers had planned to run the Yorkshire 10K and the Yorkshire Marathon and Sales Manager Phil Wiggins, pictured above, entered a 1,200 cycle race in Europe.
The pandemic scuppered these plans, so Managing Director Craig Hopwood, Minster FM’s Boss of the Year 2015, sat down with Phil and hatched the weekend charity extravaganza.
“We decided, let’s just invent our own event and do it that weekend,” said Phil, The Press’s Charity Fundraiser of the Year 2014. “Collectively we would all walk or run as a company the 218 miles from York to the National Cancer Research Institute in London. I would also cycle the full 218 miles on my indoor bike.”
The Electronics Direct team set itself a target of £2,000 and fundraising began at 5am on the Saturday morning with Phil taking to the saddle for a mammoth 14-hour bike ride.
Other members of staff with family and friends joined the effort over the day, notching up 10-mile walks and runs around Yorkshire.
“It was brilliant to see on social media so many of the team getting out and about,” said Phil. “Even ex-employees as far away as Abu Dhabi saw what we were doing and got involved!
“By Sunday we had gathered momentum and were all buzzing. I chipped in with a 10-mile run and the MD, who had already walked and cycled 10 miles, went out and did 10 miles on a paddle board.
“On Monday morning we finished off with a cake sale, all baked and cooked by some of the team. In all we raised over £2,600 from deciding to do this on the Friday, which is amazing.
“It’s difficult to get an entire company involved with organised events when there are so many different abilities and commitments, but this really worked for us. We have such a good team here, who all love to support each other – getting everyone involved was amazing.”
Between them, the team, their friends and their family notched up more than 600 miles over the weekend.
Julie Russell, our General Manager, said we were touched at the commitment shown by the Electronics Direct workforce.
“We love it when people come together like this because they appreciate what we do,” she said. “They should all feel really proud of this achievement, because they have really helped local people living with cancer.”
There’s still time to support the team’s efforts through their fundraising page here
You can also read more about how they did it on their Facebook page here
