Merry Christmas!

[caption id="attachment_7529" align="aligncenter" width="640"] Bertrams have pulled out the stops! Click on the pic to enlarge if needed[/caption]

What better way to finish Community Link-Up for 2013 with our third and final look at festive jumpers!

Bertrams have sent us a fine selection of knitwear from the day, together with the news they raised a fantastic £219.38 in the process :)

Which means the overall total raised for Save the Children now stands at £363.76.

All that remains is to wish you and yours a Merry Christmas and a Prosperous New Year.

Community Link-Up will return on January 6th 2014.

Christmas Jumper Day... Take 2

[caption id="attachment_7472" align="aligncenter" width="640"] Another fine festive selection as modelled by James Bullen, Rachel Underhill and Sophie Morris[/caption]

Instore took the opportunity to show off their Christmas jumpers last week as part of their staff raffle and buffet festivities.

Meanwhile those too shy to go on camera at Rowan House, raised a further £69.38 for Save the Children.

Thus the total raised for Christmas Jumper Day now stands at £144.38 :)

Christmas Jumper Day... Take 1

[caption id="attachment_7464" align="aligncenter" width="640"] A fine selection of festive knitwear from Wednesbury - click on the pic to enlarge[/caption]

[caption id="attachment_7480" align="alignright" width="300"] NAC also showing a good turnout[/caption]

Congratulations to the Customer Services team at Wednesbury, you have the honour of sending the first pictures for Christmas Jumper Day 2013 :)

And what a fine turnout it was, netting contributions of £38.

NAC weren't to be outdone, with their selection raising £37.

Did your location take part in Save the Children's Christmas Jumper Day? We have space on the blog this week for your pics!

The Consortium go Dotty for Children in Need

PJs, onesies and all kinds of dotted wear, not to mention a celebrity visit from Mr Blobby, meant a fun time was had by all at both The Consortium's Trowbridge and Shrewsbury sites recently. All in the name of Children in Need :)

Bring Out Your Festive Jumpers!

Save the date! December 13th is Christmas Jumper Day!

Ron Weasley's mum was famous for her knitted Christmas jumpers in the Harry Potter books; maybe someone in your family has the same claim to fame? If so, it's time to search those cupboards and bring out your festive jumper stash!

Or perhaps you preferred Sarah Lund's stylish jumpers in The Killing and have one of your own like this one. No problem, that counts too!

It's all a bit of fun to raise some festive cash for Save the Children.

Who can take part?

NB This is a general blog post available to everyone in Smiths News,  so do check whether your location is taking part first. If it is, and you don't have any customer-facing meetings planned, then we're asking for a donation of £1 to take part.

OK, I'm in, but I don't have a Christmas jumper :(

That's no problem, you could buy, borrow or decorate one!

Sweater style knows no limits, so why not get creative and decorate your own glitzy knitwear with tinsel, stars, baubles and snowflakes?

Deramores are Save the Children's partner wool supplier* - they also have plenty of freebie knitted and crochet decoration ideas to make your jumper festive. So far there are patterns for puddings, a holly garland, robins, stockings, bears and snowflakes with more to come.

The Save the Children website also has a downloadable mini jumper pattern created by Debbie Bliss, which you could add to your clothing as your cheeky contribution to the day!

This is a fun idea suitable for lots of locations to join in. Don't forget to send us your photos!

Or make your own

A festive jumper isn't just for Christmas Jumper Day! If you're looking for a longer term project and like the look of the snowman sweater featured at the top of this post, then you'll also find a link to the downloadable pattern on the Save the Children Christmas Jumper Day website.

The Deramores website has a selection of other festive designs for an alternative to the snowman jumper e.g. snowflakes.

* = Throughout November Deramores are also donating 50p to Save the Children where any order includes one ball of sirdar wool.

Ahoy Children in Need!

[caption id="attachment_7308" align="alignright" width="300"] Pudsey says 'Hurrah!' :)[/caption]

We have news of another virtual Link-Up!

Following last week's Children in Need preview, Newport, Rowan House and The Consortium have all been in touch with news on how they're taking part this year.

Newport's Judy Read says:

"It will be cakes / bacon rolls on Thursday and we are going to be wearing hats for the day – the sillier the better.  We will be charging 50p to wear a hat but fining people £2.00 if they don’t join in!"

...and this from The Consortium's Joanne Kent:

"We are having a Children in Need day with people invited to come in wearing spotty clothes and bringing teddies in."

... and I hear there's a sweetie stall at Rowan House with home-made honeycomb. Save some for me!

We're standing by to take on board all the pictorial evidence and news on the amount raised. If your location is also taking part, grab that camera phone now and add your news and pics! Pudsey gets an extra £20 if you do so :)

Cake and Drag News!

On Saturday Rowan House's Jennifer Taylor and friends turned out in great numbers and a variety of outfits for Swindon in Drag 2013! The photos show they had a lot of fun and I'm sure the warm weather helped to make it a great evening out on the town.

And Jennifer's efforts to reach her £1,000 target for Cancer Research UK continue! She's bringing in cakes today and all donations in exchange for a cake are welcome :)

Swindon in Drag 2013

[caption id="attachment_6037" align="aligncenter" width="640"] A look back at 2012 - I wonder how things went on Saturday...[/caption]

By the time you read this, plenty of participants from Rowan House will have taken part in Saturday's Swindon in Drag event for 2013.

Just like last year, Jennifer Taylor is the organiser and sent us the above picture from last year as a trailer for this year's event. Sadly there wasn't time to bring you the news ahead of Saturday, but I'm sure Jennifer won't mind if I use her words to describe what was in store...

The time of year has come around again where me and my friends make fools of ourselves, dress up in clothing of the opposite gender, and attempt to raise as much money as possible for Cancer Research UK :)

We’ve had some brilliant years previously but we’ve never managed to break the £1000 mark and we’re super determined to get there this year!! Any donation you can make via our Just Giving page will be hugely appreciated by myself and my friends. 

I also found out recently that someone from my past that had a huge influence on me as a teenager has recently died of cancer, so I’ll be dedicating my efforts to Stuart Holland, the man who gave me my first job at WHSmiths in Marlborough when I was 16! He even left me in charge of the store on Sundays when I was 17… brave man!

Thanks for your support!

I hope it went well Jennifer and you all had a fun evening raising pots of cash! 

Slough Get a 'Wiggle' On

[caption id="attachment_5822" align="aligncenter" width="577"] The all important group photo :)[/caption]

Further to last week's fun at Rowan House, we have news of the great time Slough had with Wig Wednesday! Shefali Patel reports...

Our first charity event at Slough house was a great success and most of us had a great day putting smiles on people’s faces. In total around 25 staff members came in to work wearing a wig.

Clive Element – Group House Manager supported a Rastafarian dreadlock wig, Alicia Alexander – Support Manager long blonde locks and Slavomir Pietluch, Distribution Manager wearing an Afro...!!

We do admit – it was a struggle trying not to laugh through the day!!

This event of Wig Wednesday raised the total amount of £454.40 which will be donated to our chosen charity – Wexham Park Hospital.

It looks like you had loads of fun Shefali, and that's a fantastic total raised :)

Fun With Wig Wednesday

We've news just in from Rowan House and LTN about last week's Wig Wednesday!

First up it's Rowan House...

[caption id="attachment_5784" align="aligncenter" width="640"] What could be better to cheer up a Wednesday than wigs... and cakes! Group shot left to right is Jo Kelly, Laura Morris, Emma Allan, Jo Macpherson and Amanda Jones[/caption]

Emma Allan also organised a cake sale – lots of ladies from Rowan House brought in yummy cakes and savoury goodies to sell and raise money. Nic Hewlett’s monster of a pie went down well as usual! In total just over £100 was raised for CLIC Sargent – not bad for a morning’s work!



And not content with all his efforts for the Paris Marathon, here's a photo of Eugene, LTN Distribution Manager. He raised a very respectable £12 just from sitting at his desk in his wig! He said, “Not much raised, but this event helped to raise a smile around the warehouse.”

Are there any more wigs waiting out there to be shared, Slough for example... ??? We'd love to see your pics! :)

Slough Get Going

Hot on the heels of yesterday's fundraising update, we have news of Slough House's plans to add to the total :)

Shefali Patel reports:

As a Community Champion for Slough House I would like you to know we have organised 3 charity events:

1. Wig Wednesday – 22^nd May 2013. Everyone will be coming in to work on the day with a wig and making a donation.


2. Race for Life – 2^nd June 2013. The ladies at Slough House will be participating in the 5km event at Windsor. [Their Just Giving page shows there's 14 ladies taking part, marvellous - Ed]


3. Sponsored Shave – 19^th June 2013. An employee who have not shaved his beard for last 30 years will be shaving it on the day for charity. 

All proceeds raised during Wig Wednesday and the Sponsored Shave will be donated to the Children’s ward at the local hospital in Slough.

Fantastic news Shefali! Looking forward to seeing those wigs tomorrow! Is anyone else out there joining in for Wig Wednesday? It would be great to feature everyone on Community Link-Up!

Getting Wiggy With It

[caption id="attachment_5269" align="alignright" width="198"] The Consortium's Jo Trigg unwittingly gets in training for Wig Wednesday on Red Nose Day[/caption]

Save the date!

Wednesday 22nd May - 4 weeks today - is officially designated as Wig Wednesday!

Organised by CLIC Sargent, Wig Wednesday is one big day when people across the UK will unite to raise vital funds for children and young people with cancer. As well as being a frightening experience, the gruelling, often life-saving cancer treatment frequently leads to them losing their hair.

Wig Wednesday is the perfect way of raising awareness in a fun way as well as supporting a good cause.

Don't have a wig? Don't worry, CLIC Sargent have got it covered! Visit their official store to buy your wig and you're already donating to the cause.

So, get together with your colleagues, wear a wig for the day and ask them to make a donation to take part. Don't forget to take some photos - the wiggier the better - and send them to Community Link-Up. We'll add a £20 donation for each location featured :)

We Haz Plans...

We have news of a couple of plans for this year's Charity Fundraising.



Firstly, we have a sneak preview of the provisional plan The Consortium has mapped out for their fundraising activities in Trowbridge this year :)

This year they're raising funds to support the West Wiltshire Special Needs Activity Scheme and have a number of events planned for the whole of 2013.

Completed

• January – The Consortium presented a cheque for £12,132.77 to Wiltshire Air Ambulance, their chosen good cause for 2012


• February – TV Raffle (and many other prizes!) raised a massive £460


• 15^th March – Comic Relief – raised £237

The raffle and Comic Relief fundraising were both held as 'cross-site' events, involving The Consortium's Trowbridge and Shrewsbury sites.

To Come

• April – Grand national sweepstake


• 21^st April – Kim Valentine runs the London Marathon (again!)


• 14^th May – Quiz Night held at the Wesley Road Club in Trowbridge


• September – The Consortium Annual Golf Day


• 28^th September - Macmillan Coffee Morning and the annual Golden Spoon competition


• September / October – Race Night


• 25^th October – Wear it Pink day


• December – Christmas Raffle

There's plenty going on at The Consortium in 2013! We look forward to seeing more news and pictures as each event happens :)

Secondly Terri Baylis at Rowan House has given us news of her revised plans for her walk set for June in aid of CLIC. She originally was going to tackle 25 miles of the scenic Jurassic Coast and now...

I’ve updated my JustGiving page - we’re now walking the Ridgeway between Avebury & Streatley on 14-15^th July, which is around 40 miles over the two days.

Thanks for the update Terri - I see you've added quite a few miles to your proposed walk!

Do you or your area have a fundraising plan this year? Do let us know what you have in store... and don't forget it may also provide an opportunity for a wider Link-Up with your colleagues, suppliers or customers in some way!

Red Nose Day Round-up

Last Friday saw an outbreak of red noses - and cakes! - as many locations got down to the serious business of funraising for Comic Relief. Here's a quick tour of the day's highlights...

Borehamwood...

...entered into a Bake Off with strong entries from across the group. Group Manager Jim Sinden was nominated as chief taster which he struggled to say no to!

Jim enjoyed the full experience of tasting all entries and awarded first prize to Becky in CS for a lovely moist carrot cake that was to his liking.

Well done to everyone who took part in the day, raising £160.

And then over at...

...Bertrams

A Mary Berry style bake-off raised £271.57 in total.

£41.16 of that came from the sales team following their Onesie/PJ’s and casual wear antics.  The photo is of Carole Fletcher (Account Executive) and Faye Barnes (Account Manager). Faye is on the left, Carole on the right.

The Consortium made sure their presence at the Education Show didn't stop them joining in on the fun! They simply brought forward their Red Nose Day to the Wednesday and held a 'cross-site' event, meaning both Trowbridge and Shrewsbury got involved.

[gallery type="rectangular" link="post" ids="5268,5269,5270,5271"]

As Comic Relief celebrates its 25 year anniversary this year, they chose 'everything 80’s' as their theme for a dress up day. Prizes were awarded for best fancy dress in all locations – for field sales, a prize was on offer for the most subtle costume!

Lots of comic cakes were also baked to celebrate. As you can see they submitted a few pictures of everyone dressed up, but the cakes were snapped up too quickly for photos! A total of  £237 was raised across the two sites.

[gallery type="rectangular" link="post" ids="5274,5275"]

And finally, Rowan House have submitted evidence of cakes disguised as red noses! This was the first cake sale since moving office in Swindon last October, so it was long overdue.

Staff baked lots of cakes and other sweet goodies, which sold extremely well throughout the day. And following demand for some savoury goodies, our resident ‘Great British Baker’ Nic Hewlett (Finance) baked one of her legendary pies - this one was chicken, sausage meat and stuffing. There wasn’t much time to admire it though - as people were queuing up to devour it!

Their funraising netted £136.85, thus making a grand total of £805.42 for this report :)

Newport Get Funraising

[gallery type="rectangular" link="post" ids="5208,5207,5205,5204,5203,5202"]

Newport made sure they had plenty of funraising last week when they held a two-day extravaganza in aid of Comic Relief! Hover your mouse over the pictures for more information and a who's who :)

As well as zipwire, wiggy, biking and onesie action, they sold bacon and sausage baps to warehouse staff on Thursday, together with cakes made by Connor Yalland. Connor is the 10 year-old son of Michelle who works in the office (she's pictured in the middle of the front row in the group photo).  They also held a sweepstake to choose the hairstyle Jessie J would choose after she had her head shaved.

It looks like a lot of fun was had by all! A total of £82.70 was raised for Comic Relief.

Newport haven't forgotten the cause closest to their hearts either. Some of the above pictures also introduce their latest activities in support of St David's Foundation.

On Sunday, there was a 28 mile cycle ride from Caldicot to Newport and back. Saturday sees more zipwire action in Chepstow – a 800ft zip slide over a 250ft lake! Finally in May there's a 'onesie walk' across the Severn Bridge - a total of 11 miles.

Their efforts have also caught the attention of their local newspaper, who report the team has raised over £4,000 so far.

Look out for more Friday funraising later in the week as we're expecting further reports of red noses seen from around Smith News ;)

NB The watermarked pictures are courtesy and copyright of South Wales Argus.

Darren Finds His Ho Ho Ho

Darren Turner (Operations Director at Bertrams) had a key part to play recently when he (shhhh! don't tell anyone) dressed up as Santa for Friends of Stoke Ash primary school's fundraiser, near Eye.

The Friends raise funds for equipment for the school, plus support children from under privileged backgrounds who cannot afford items such as being able to go on school trips e.g. the Friends are paying for some children to go to Aladdin in Norwich.

Says Darren:

We raised £480 at the school Christmas fair, I raised over £80 as Santa. Sorry the picture is not brilliant but it was dark in the Grotto.

Thanks for helping Dispatches get in a festive mood Darren :)

Mobros Extra!

The turn of December last week saw a few chilly top lips as the Movember competition came to a close and moustaches were given the chop! Although we featured some of the most impressive 'taches in our December newsletter, they were plenty more contenders – here are a few of our favourites!

[caption id="attachment_4488" align="alignleft" width="1024"] This year's MoBros from Worcester[/caption]

First up we have a picture of 2012's Team from Worcester to compare with their efforts from last year. Did they do any better this time? You decide...

Next we reprise the award winning pinup Mos revealed in last week's December newsletter: Winner Paul Whittingham from Bertrams, plus runners up Trade Marketing's James Bullen and The Consortium's Adam Courthold.

The NAC Banditos show an impressive likeness to their proposed After shot we showed you previously!

Next we have a mixture of familiar and new faces showing off their final Mos...

[caption id="attachment_4508" align="alignleft" width="640"] From left to right and top to bottom: Andy Aitken (The Consortium), Andy Dunkerley, Robert Mackenzie (both Trade Marketing) and Robin Denton (Dawson)[/caption]

... and finally, the remaining guys from Trade Marketing line up to reveal an impressive variety of 'tache styles!

So far our 28 Mobros have raised a fantastic £1,985 between them. There's still time to  donate and get them over the magic £2,000 mark. Here's the full list of donation pages for your final contributions:

• Andy Aitken


• Adam Courthold


• Robin Denton


• Ian Howat


• Simon Lockett


• NAC Banditos


• Trade Marketing


• Paul Whittingham


• Worcester

Editor's Note - 12th October 2013 - the donation pages are no longer available on the Movember website, so the above links have been removed.

Movember is a fun way to raise awareness for men’s health charities so well done for everyone who got involved!

Update 10/12/2012: Thanks to your clicks through to the donations pages this morning, the total raised now stands at £2,005 :)

How's It Growing?

With just a week left to grow, we have news of new MoBros and lots of 'tache-tastic 'Mo' progress to show you!

There are now 28 Movember participants in Smiths News, hailing from 7 different locations...

Bertrams



Paul Whittingham joins the fray with an impressive Mo!

Saying It’s about time we did some charity work for men’s bits, Paul adds: It's just me and my moustache. Caption could be Hulk Hogan or Seth Armstrong from Emmerdale? – you choose!

Ideas anyone?

Borehamwood

Simon Lockett adds another new Mo and location to our Movember progress :)

Simon has a Just Giving page set up for his donations. Judging by the comments there, his new look is proving to be a 'marmite moment' - 'OMG', 'no likey' and 'the tash really suits you' are just a few of the remarks made thus far!

The Consortium

Andy Aitken and Adam Courthold  are growing well.

Adam is regularly updating his Mospace with progress. He supplied the latest picture of his Mo to left, and his Mospace has some nicely drawn cartoons of what he's hoping to achieve by the end of Movember.

Dawson

[caption id="attachment_4456" align="alignleft" width="300"] Dawson's Mobros Robin Denton and Ian Howat[/caption]

Dawson now have 2 MoBros! Robin Denton  says his motivation is:

My father had Prostate Cancer, now thankfully recovered, so just to raise awareness of this horrible disease.

Robin joins Ian Howat  who's having lots fun over on his Mopage - love the shades Ian!

NAC Banditos...

Andrew Stone (captain), Adam Hellewell, John Jefferson and Mike Ward are all keeping their Mos undercover at the half way stage - see you at the end for the full reveal guys!

Trade Marketing



As you can see the Trade Marketing team are sporting a variety of styles for Movember.

Here we have (from top left and then top right downwards and then bottom right to left) James Bullen, Nick Scraggs, Matt Piper (captain), Andrew Dunkerley, Robert Mackenzie and Tim Edridge.

We look forward to seeing how Neil Davies, Jas Rehal and Darrell Stead are getting on!

James Bullen has a particularly natty slideshow on his individual page! NB individual pages (where applicable) can be viewed via the team page links given.

Worcester

We now have the names of all 9 team members: Alex Williams (captain), Stuart Birch, Adam Buchanan, Matt Cooke,  Mark Falcon, Derek Hampton, James Lamb, Sam Page and Iain Sandison. They have an inventive game for you to play on their team page - can you match the nickname to the team member?

Between them our guys have raised £1,327 so far - follow the links above to your favourite's Movember page and let's see them go to £2,000 and beyond!

To encourage everyone in their final few days effort for this year's Movember, I leave you with the inspiration that is the World Beard and Moustache Championships ;)

NB Links to Just Giving and Movember fundraising pages are no longer available.

Newport Supports Children in Need

Newport ensured this year's Children in Need was supported in style last Thursday and Friday, raising £180 in the process. Judy Read reports...

[caption id="attachment_4410" align="alignleft" width="640"] Mmm... Pudsey Cupcakes :)[/caption]

Clare Hockey made some rather scrummy Pudsey cupcakes and sales went rather well. Here's Sarah Collins selling cakes to Maria in the warehouse.



However, if you prefer savoury to sweet, bacon rolls always go down a storm. Gary Cain puts the final touches to his roll. NB I prefer brown sauce too!

As well as selling cakes and bacon rolls to their Newport colleagues, some of the staff in Customer Services went the 'extra mile' and donned their PJs for the day...

[caption id="attachment_4411" align="alignleft" width="640"] All in their PJs for the day - Michelle Yalland, Sarah Melchior, Judy Read, Claire Hockey and Andrew Herbert at the front[/caption]

Worcester Weighs in for Movember

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="640"] Worcester's 'Team Movember' last year[/caption]

We have news of a new team on the block for Movember! Last year's team from Worcester are set to repeat their success with a mix of old and new faces for 2012. Team captain Alex Williams says:

We at the Magazine Sales Centre in Worcester have been taking part in this years ‘Movember’. There are a fair few of us giving it a go although too few have the real capacity to grow a decent moustache.

As well as Alex, the team includes Stuart Birch, Adam Buchanan, Mark Falcon, James Lamb and Sam Page.

We've just passed Movember's half way point - tune in next week to see how progress is growing!