Latest News from LTN

LTN's Terry Skipsey has been in touch with news of a couple of fundraising activities they've held over the past few weeks...

Sadly, John Paice, one of our night drivers passed away on 26th August. He had been suffering from lung cancer for some time and had been off on sick leave since September 2012. He had expressed wishes for no flowers at his funeral. A staff collection was made and a donation of £140 to Macmillan nurses has been made.

Terry has also organised an annual golf event for the past 5 years in memory of his late father, who died 8 years ago. The event grows every year and this year's was the biggest yet...

This year, 73 golfers made up of family, friends & colleagues attended Surrey Downs Golf Club on Monday 9th September. 27 holes of golf & an evening presentation hosted by family friend Ron ‘Chopper’ Harris with his many football stories and comedian Mickey Pugh ensured that a good time was had by all. A raffle & number of auction items raised £400 for the Royal Marsden Hospital in Sutton. A further £120 was raised  for the Stacey Mowle appeal by pre-selling ‘Mulligan’  golf shots for £5.00  each,  before the main afternoon round commenced.

Thanks for the update Terry, and do send our best wishes to John Paice's family.

NB If you've organised an event recently which you'd like featured on Community Link-Up, we'd love to hear from you! Don't forget, there's an extra £20 donation for your good cause if you do.

The News Team Tee Off

It's certainly a good time of the year to be playing golf! Tye Lohrenz has details of the News Team's winning combination of a favourite pastime and support for a good cause...

On 14th June 23 teams of 4 players took part in Bromham 20's Club Annual Charity Golf Day at the North Wilts Golf Course in Devizes.

After 4 efforts to win this event, perseverance finally paid off for the boys from the South coast (Mark and Mike, along with regular player Howard and a guest appearance from Jim Sinden), with a creditable 3rd place against stiff local opposition. This year’s main charity was the Wiltshire Air Ambulance service, who received a cheque for £1,000.

Full team name check: Howard Birch, Mike Moore, Mark Simmons, Jim Sinden.

Well done everyone - here's to more winning ways next year!

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!

Golfers Tackle Bowood

[caption id="attachment_4111" align="alignleft" width="640"] The winning Infor team[/caption]

Organisers Holly Cresswell-Jeal (Marketing Executive) and Helen Rose-Johnson (PA to Directors) ensured The Consortium's latest fundraising event went with a swing at Bowood, near Calne recently. They organised the popular annual charity golf day on Wednesday, September 12th, with help on the day from Donna Oaten (Graphic Artworker). They take up the story:

[caption id="attachment_4112" align="alignleft" width="300"] John Kershaw in action[/caption]

This was The Consortium’s 8^th annual charity golf day and it was lovely to see so may familiar faces. The day is always enjoyed by many and after last year's torrential rain all day, we had our fingers crossed for sun this year. Despite a quick down pour the day remained dry for the golfers.

We had 67 golfers who attended the event - from suppliers, staff and customers - with an additional 20 diners joining us just for the evening. We had various competitions around the course including nearest the pin, the longest drive and beat the pro – there were three happy golfers that day who did in fact beat the pro!

[caption id="attachment_4115" align="alignright" width="300"] At the dinner and presentation evening - one of the Smiths News teams takes 3rd place[/caption]

More people joined us in the evening for a three course meal, prize presentation, raffle and the customary heads or tails game.

We still have money coming in although so far it looks like we raised over £1,000.

We have raised over £5,500 for Wiltshire Air Ambulance this year, smashing our target of £4,000 and we still have three months to go!

Golf's Longest Day

[caption id="attachment_3461" align="alignleft" width="640"] The team from left to right: Mike Moore, Mark Simmons, Russ Hallett and Mullet Farnes[/caption]

Mike Moore (House Manager Croydon) and Mark Simmons (Distribution Manager Crawley) have news of a marathon session of golf played at Chichester Golf Club on the longest day, June 22nd.  They report:

4 rounds of golf were played in one day, starting with first tee off at 5am. 512 stableford points were amassed incorporating 150 pars and 10 birdies. Fine weather / sore feet!

They raised £1,000, split between Newstraid (£600) and Help for Heroes (£400).

Golfers Get Fundraising

Tye Lohrenz at Wakefield House has news of some recent fundraising...

I am secretary of the Bromham 20’s Club. We are a group of 20 “gentlemen” who meet once a month and occasionally do some fundraising.

Annually we hold a charity golf day hosting about 24 teams of 4 players.

For the past 5 years Smiths News have entered a team, which this year consisted of Mike Moore, Howard Birch, Darren Neport. (Faye Morley-Medlar was represented by her husband Dave!)

The combined effort was to raise just over £2,500 distributed as follows:

• Wiltshire Young Carers - £ 1633


• National Citizen Service - £ 400


• Naomi House Childrens Hospice - £ 500

TOTAL - £ 2533

Crawley Takes Up Sport

[caption id="attachment_2934" align="alignleft" width="225"] Donna proudly displays her medal[/caption]

Crawley House have tales of past sporting prowess with more still to come...

As mentioned previously in Dispatches, Donna Brown took part in the Swimathon at her local pool at the end of April. This is an annual event held nationwide which aims to raise funds for Marie Curie Cancer Care.

Donna elected to swim 2.5 kilometres, i.e. 100 lengths of the pool. This is the equivalent of running 12.5 kilometres, so her achievement is impressive :)

Staying on the running front we have late news just in that Customer Service Assistant Sajida Sidat's daughter ran 4 miles for Sport Relief for Schools at the end of March. Crawley House donated £50 towards her sponsorship total.

Last but not least, Mark Simmons and Mike Moore report on an intriguing joint sporting challenge still to come:

On Friday 22^nd June Crawley and Croydon are taking up the challenge of the Longest Day of Golf at Chichester golf club. The Victims (sorry I mean Golfers) will endure 72 holes over 300 shots and will cover 20 miles with 53% of the holes played having the additional challenge of water on them.

Think we’re going to need a bigger boat and a lot more golf balls.

The money raised will be divided between Newstraid and Help for Heroes.

Mark and Mike: it sounds like you'll be well on your way to completing a 2012 Challenge in one go with that little lot!

Plymouth Get in the Fundraising Swing

Plymouth's Steve Smith, Peter Lamming and Adam Chidzoy got in the fundraising swing by taking part in the Trevose  Spring  Charity  Golf tournament in aid of Cornwall Air Ambulance. Together with guest Pat  Fletcher they formed Smudgers Dreamers,  one of 33 teams taking part in the event on March 6-7th, who between them expect to  raise £1,500 to £2,000.

They report:

Weather and golf was good. We came eighth overall which is our best result to date. Many  congratulations to Peter and Adam  who came  2^ND  in the pairs.

Sounds an enjoyable way to raise money for a good cause!