Ho Ho Ho festive fundraisers! It’s the midst of the Christmas season and hopefully your evenings are full of hearty cheer, baubles and mince pies, all set against a backdrop of angelic carol-singing choirs, Wham!'s Last Christmas and, of course, the legendary Noddy Holder telling you exactly what time of year it is. We’re certainly getting festive here. We’ve got mistletoe and Santa hats and tinsel and all sorts of other goodies. It’s hard not to get totally wrapped up in the festive spirit of giving at Pudsey HQ, as we’re constantly reminded of just how generous and the wonderful people of the UK can be.
One team who showed a generosity which really blew us away was the very good and kind folk at Legal and General, who took to their nationwide fundraising with gusto and raised over £76,000 across the whole business! Legs were waxed, cakes were baked and staff also got stuck into a ‘onesie’ challenge. It’s hard work to wear a onesie all day, but somebody’s got to do it! Not only this, but for every insurance policy sold direct in November, Legal and General gave a donation to Pudsey. Happily, in the end all that hard work really paid off and raised an outstanding amount. As you can see from the photo below of the glorious Cardiff team, the team look like they all had an ace time.
L&G staff get stuck into their onesie challenge!
The below photo was sent to us from Rebecca, a staff member at Brighton and Hove High School, and shows two happy pupils having some Pudsey-themed fun! Junior Head Sian told us a little bit about the exciting in-school fundraising that took place in November: “This year for BBC Children in Need the girls in year 4 at Brighton and Hove High School Juniors, an independent girls school, organised a special fundraising event. They rallied parents, staff and pupils to take part in a number of activities. Girls came dressed in spots and enjoyed a delicious cake sale. In total the girls, with a little bit of support from family and friends, raised over £700.” A huge well done from Pudsey and the team to everyone who helped out.
Pupils from Brighton and Hove High School had a great fundraising event!
The whole team here at Pudsey HQ was delighted to hear once again from a group of fundraisers who organised one of our favourite fundraising events of the 2013 Appeal. Staff at Heatherwood and Wexham Park Hospital held a 24-hour CPR-a-thon! The team took it in turns, via 15-minute shifts, to administer CPR to a mannequin for a whole day. Senior Resuscitation Officer Vicky, who helped to organise the event, described the day to us:
“We had families come in and their children participating alongside grandparents and they were all there to raise money for this great cause. We had people come back in during the night after working a full day just to take part alongside massive support from the Fire Service for the majority of the event. We never had a moment during the whole 24 hours when we were on our own and it is down to the commitment from our staff that this was possible. Pudsey was a brilliant addition to this and the children and adults alike were so excited to see him and have their picture taken, he even closed the event by doing the last lot of CPR!”
When Pudsey's not busy fundraising, it seems like he's picked up a few hidden skills - we never knew he could do CPR! It sounds like the event was a huge success, and the best bit of all – it raised over £3,000 for disadvantaged children and young people at over 2700 projects all across the UK. Amazing work guys, you should be very proud!
Ready, steady, resuscitate! Staff get ready for the CPR-a-thon!
And finally, as we’re coming up to Christmas, we want to say a big Merry Christmas to all of our fundraisers and thank you all for making this a record-breaking year!
Did you do something amazing this year? Or perhaps you’ve got something big planned for next year that you’d like to tell us about? Either way, we’d like to hear about it! To get in touch and tell us about all your fundraising, simply email your local address on this page, and tag us @BBCCiN on Twitter and Instagram or @Pudsey Bear on Facebook. It’s easy. So go, help us celebrate a great 2013!
