Sport Relief 2018 Round Up
17th April 2018
Sport Relief 2018 – Our best efforts?
Sport Relief 2018 was a real highlight of the year for us. We have always tried to join in with the big charity days and decided this year to see if we could make it the best one ever.
Having Jordan with us, who was on work experience, was a real help because he was not just enthusiastic about helping to manage the entire day, but creative as well. He designed all the publicity materials and helped make sure we had everything we might need to hand.
The first job was to come up with ideas which would both bring in the money but also help our social media guru’s desire to increase our presence and interactions. These days it seems to be as much about the publicity as the charity! Our shelved ideas included:
- Three-legged walk to Meadowhall along the Five Weirs Walk in the style of Look North’s Harry Gration and Paul the Weatherman for their 2016 challenge. This was a serious contender and might be taken from the mothballs in a few years to come.
- Facebook Bingo
- Barbeque
- Rowing Machine Challenge – scuppered by lack of rowing machine
- Car park John washing cars
In the end, we settled for a few good old favourites and then the flash of inspiration that was the Ofo Bike Challenge
- Bake Sale
You cannot deny that the bake sale is a real favourite at Aizlewood’s Mill.Reception staff and tenants either baked or bought items to sell, all we have to do is name the price, make the labels and collect the money.Oh, and avoid the temptation to eat it all ourselves – epic fail from Gaynor!
- Twitter Bingo
We realised that Facebook Bingo was a little too intrusive for people that follow us, as they don’t want a post every 5 minutes with a couple of bingo numbers on it so we opted for Twitter instead.We sold tickets for £1 and then released 3 numbers every ten minutes for nearly 3 hours!This was a hugely popular event, we sold tickets to both tenants and local businesses but were most pleased when the winner and runner-up were both based within Aizlewood’s Mill.Kate and Jordan’s bingo lingo was a delight to behold – despite my age being unceremoniously revealed at about half past eleven.
- Running Errands for Cash
We decided to set ourselves up as lackeys for the day running errands for donations.Whether it be delivering your milk or fetching your outgoing post we were here to help for just a few coins in the bucket.
- Long Climb up the Stairs
Just because we needed to burn off some of those cake calories we thought it would be a good idea to climb the stairs in a non-stop relay for three hours solid.Carrying a jingling collecting bucket the amazing John took total control and did most of the steps himself, we recon he climbed for just shy of two hours, beating Gaynor’s 45 minute stint by miles.Kate, Lucie and Amy all helped out though raising around £50 just for that!
- Cath’s Ofo Bike Challenge
A real stroke of genius this one, and great fun!If you’re not from anywhere that Ofo are located then this will seem a bit weird, but hang on in there.Ofo are an organisation that have brought Boris Bikes to other major cities.They have one significant advantage though, that you can hire them from wherever you find one, and then leave it in any safe place for the next hirer.There is no need to return them to a designated point (although you get more ‘points’ if you do).A smartphone app shows you where the nearest available bikes are and when you reach it, you unlock it by scanning the QR code on the bike with your phone’s camera and pay by attached card or e-pay option.At just 50p per half hour they’re cheap too!
Anyway, I digress.
The challenge was to find as many bikes as possible and cycle them back to Aizlewood’s Mill.Obviously there were a few quite close to Nursery Street and The Mill used by commuters arriving at work first thing and parking them near their serviced office space.Within the first half an hour I had managed to bring 6 back to The Mill’s onsite car park but then things started to get more difficult.I had an errand to run in Neepsend so that took me over that way in the car, but lo and behold there was a bike right there outside my destination – but I was in the car!Luckily John had come with me so I hired the bike and rode alongside me whilst I drove back to The Mill.Our sponsorship rules were that I could accept help and why not?
Another couple of bikes in Neepsend saw that area cleared and then there was the flurry of city centre options.I was really disappointed on my foray out into town to find the first two bikes had been secreted inside a building (naughty), the next one had been hacked and damaged and finally I managed to hire the fourth one I went for – and the last time I ventured into town for one.
Lunch break came and I had a lovely piece of cake from the Bake Sale whilst some keen helpers from our longstanding tenant, Timberplay, took over the challenge on my behalf and picked up another 4, my total now nearing the 20 mark.
The afternoon saw trips out to Kelham Island to collect the 6 that had been put in the preferred parking area outside Kelham Island Museum.
I was sitting having a cup of tea at about half past two when someone piped up “Ofo have just arrived in the car park” – Oops.I had presumed that they would block me on the app if they thought I was acting suspiciously but not actually send an employee to investigate! In reality the two staff members that turned up in the van were very friendly and I only had to explain my charitable intentions and they were fully supportive.They even apologised for having to load up some of their bikes into their van and redistribute them evenly across the city.In the end it took 3 vans but they were so helpful and even told me how to spot the better quality newer bikes from a distance.
I really started flagging at about 4 o’clock but with the count up to 28 I was determined to reach my target of 30 so I enlisted Lucie’s help on a trip to the canal basin where we found our last ones.
A fun and successful experience, raising just over £160 in sponsor money. If you were wondering how to get to our office space or meeting rooms, then an OFO bike is a very convenient transport option!
Thanks to everyone that baked, sponsored, bingo-ed and chucked money in the bucket to help us raise over £400! All our tenants, virtual office clients, and meeting room visitors joined in on the day- thank you!
