Sport Relief 2014 – in photos

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Contact centres across the country supported Sport Relief this year. Check out the stories and photos below.

Hostcomm and Crystal Legal take £50,000 in donations


Using Hostcomm’s infrastructure, 60 agents at Crystal Legal handled an impressive £56,000 of public donations over the phone and held their own in-house fundraising activities. While the average donation size was £35.81, one generous donor gave a £2,000 donation, giving the team a considerable boost in motivation and excitement.

“I’d like to congratulate everyone at Crystal Legal on another excellent Sport Relief,” says Chris Key, Director at Hostcomm. “It’s their commitment to doing their bit for charity, their professionalism, and their sheer passion that has made this their biggest year for donations yet. And I’m sure they’re already making plans for next year’s night of fun and fundraising.”


Softcat employees jump on the phones for Sports Relief

Softcat offices in Manchester and Marlow both transformed into Sport Relief contact centers on Friday night, with 200 employees volunteering to man the phones and take donations. Together they raised a total of £16,000.

“Every year the charity team is stunned by the generosity of Softcat staff – we have more fundraising activities going on here than at any company I’ve worked at, and yet if anything people here seem to give more generously,” said Charlie Harman, Head of Softcat’s Charity Team. “£16,000 is a lot of money and will go a long way towards helping to achieve the goals of Sports Relief.”

Other fundraising activities included a vendor-sponsored raffle, a BBQ manned by the company directors, and various school sports day activities, including an egg and spoon race and a wheelbarrow race. Staff dressed up in sportswear in acknowledgement of the recent Winter Olympics – some going to greater extremes than others.

…And employee shaves his head to boost fundraising efforts

Employee Dan Clinch volunteered to auction shaving either his head or beard, raising £2,000.

“As soon as I found out I was going to get a free haircut I was more than happy to get involved,” said Dan. “Luckily the beard stayed.”


Chaucer Direct teamed up with sports stars and 100 volunteers

Sports stars Nicky Little, Adam Riley, Matthew Walker, Andy Barrow and Sean Kerly were joined by 120 volunteers from Chaucer Direct and Chaucer Insurance on the companies’ phone lines, taking donations for the five-hour duration of the televised Sport Relief event.

“One gentleman I spoke to was so moved by a clip on the programme he couldn’t read the number on his card for his tears, and my last call was an elderly lady who donated £1,000! I had to ask her 3 times just to be sure!” said Clare Randall, volunteer for Sport Relief.

“The team spirit and the buzz in the call centre was beyond expectation – everyone seemed to be having a great time, despite the tiredness, and the sportsmen made a real effort to speak to the team which really added to wonderful atmosphere,” said Paul Baxter, head of Chaucer Direct.


ComputerTel employee completes 50-mile charity bike ride

ComputerTel employee Darius Farrell entered a 50-mile bike ride to help raise money for Sport Relief. Leaving the Olympic Stadium and covering a route through Essex and East London, he encountered the challenges of hail, rain and wind to push forward and finish the course in an impressive 4 hours and 8 minutes.

His fundraising efforts were boosted by his colleagues back in the office, who held a Putting Match, Tug of War competition and Indoor Archery contest on Friday.


Housing Association contact centre volunteers for Sport Relief

Over 100 staff at an AmicusHorizon’s contact centre volunteered to take donation calls for Sport Relief. They ran 50 phone lines for the charity between 6pm and midnight.

“We had stories of young children who’d saved their pocket money and wanted to make donations – a truly humbling experience,” said Rebecca Tracy, Team Leader and organiser at AmicusHorizon. “The whole evening was a huge success and I’m proud to say we helped make a difference for Sport Relief.”

The contact centre team also joined in the fun and games, raising over £1,000 themselves. They held a raffle with more than 80 donated prizes, raised money playing games and selling cakes, and held a Tug of War contest!


Auto Windscreens staff take calls in fancy dress


Seventy-five people volunteered at Auto Windscreens’ contact centre to take donation calls for Sport Relief 2014. Staff and their friends and family, many wearing sporty fancy dress, helped take calls from 7pm to midnight from members of the public wanting to pledge funds for the cause.

The call centre team also held a Sport Relief pentathlon championship throughout the week. This saw 16 in-house teams go head-to-head in a series of office-related challenges including paper plane javelin, plastic dart gun shooting, discus hoopla, waste paper archery and a chair marathon. They were even cheered on by Chesterfield Football Club’s mascot, Chester the Field Mouse.

“We had an absolutely fantastic time taking calls and competing in our pentathlon,” said Diane O’Brien at Auto Windscreens’ contact centre. “Everyone really got into the Sport Relief mood and the atmosphere was great as we took donation call after donation call.”


Spark Response raises over £47,000 for Sport Relief

Around 70 staff from Spark Response gave up their Friday evening to support Sport Relief. During the five hour telethon, the contact centre took hundreds of calls from generous members of the public and by the end of the evening, over £47,000 had been taken.

In addition, a further £1,000 was raised by staff from raffles and other themed events held in the build-up to the event.

“The atmosphere in the build-up was electric and that continued right through until midnight when we switched off,” said Noel Lambert, Operations Director at Spark Response. “It’s testament to the team in place here that so many people were prepared to give up their Friday night for charity.”


BT took Sport Relief calls across a number of their contact centres

8 of BT’s call centres took donations for Sport Relief on Friday night, with around 1,000 volunteers getting involved. The participating sites were BT Tower, Doncaster, Enniskillen, Glasgow (Dial House), Leicester, Newcastle, Oswestry (TSO site not Consumer) and Warrington.


Brightstar 20:20 threw themselves into a range of Sport Relief activities

Brightstar 20:20 was selected to be an Official Call Centre for Sport Relief 2014, and had over 80 staff volunteering on the evening to take calls. Over 75% of the 400 members staff were involved in the event, with colleagues bringing their families to celebrate, Stokes famous ‘Pottermus’ mascot even joined in on the fun!

In addition, the contact centre hosted a range of sporting challenges. Colleagues spent the day challenging each other in various fun filled activities including; Man V’s Food, Bake Off and the Mangers Challenge!

Director of Support Services Mark Nightingale was crowned ‘King of Fundraising’ after personally raising over £800 by running the 17 mile journey from home.

“I am immensely proud of our company and staff,” said Jim Michel, Managing Director of Brightstar 20:20. “All members of staff got behind the charity event, proving that we can all aspire to give something back.”


Sport Relief round-up

2 photos sent to us via Twitter:

With thanks to ‏@rachiek77

With thanks to @RichardHanrahan

Author: Megan Jones

Published On: 26th Mar 2014 - Last modified: 7th Apr 2021
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