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Currencies Direct Chilli Charity Challenge

Deepak Goyal brought the ‘hottest sauce in the Universe’ into the office and laid down a challenge - who could eat the most! Read the rest of this entry »

The short month of February is over already and this month we went back to supporting 3 charities and showing our support via the gold coins!

We raised a very healthy £219.15 in February which has pushed the co-operative wall total up to £4966 - almost at the £5k mark. And this is a significant benchmarking moment as Currencies Direct employees have now been regularly supporting charities for 1 year. To almost reach £5000 in one year of contributing from an office of just 50 people is inspiring. I wax lyrical about the commitment and enthusiasm that has sprung from Currencies Direct to anyone outside this office that will listen. Its hard to believe that just 12 months ago we didn’t do anything, and now I can look at a wall of thank you letters from charities praising our good work and the help that the money raised has been to them!

Thank you to everyone who has helped make this a success, I am very proud.

So, which charity was your favourite in February. The breakdown is below:

Shelter £71.99
Streetchild £81.68
Mencap £65.48

So February was close, but Streetchild just came out on top. The co-operative wall has been updated with the new charities that we will be supporting in March and these are:

Help a London Child
Born Free Foundation
Epilepsy Research

As always, click back here for regular updates on the additional fundraising activies that we get up to!

Thank you for reading

We have received a few photographs kindly taken by the caretaker at Hampstead Parochial Primary School, and have been given permission to display on our blog site.

Here is Santa (Jose) in his grotto!!

This is Oliver Elliott, aged 6 looking for treasure at ‘Treasure Lucky Dip’.

Barbara working hard at the ‘Face Painting’ station.

And Santa hard at work, giving out presents!

These are a great reminder of a lovely day, and hopefully one that we’ll all remember for a long time!

The time has come for us to decide upon the next charities for people to support in the office. As before suggestions were submitted and a list of 27 charities were passed around for the vote. This has given us a list of 9 democratically chosen charities for us to support over the next 3 months. All the charities are worthy causes and cover a very wide spectrum, which should make donating over the next 3 months really interesting.

The winners of The Big Charity Vote 4, along with the score they received are below in order of the month we will be supporting them:

March
Help a London Child - 116
Epilepsy Research - 89
Born Free Foundation - 61

April
Diabetes UK - 86
Honeypot - 60
Stepping Stones - 45

May
Face The Future - 53
David Shepherd Foundation - 49
Smile Foundation - 49

There will be some exciting opportunities this year with CSR so please watch this space for more details!!

Excerpt from the British Red Cross - Haiti Earthquake Appeal website www.redcross.org.uk

“A devastating earthquake measuring 7.3 on the Richter scale struck Haiti on 12 January 2010, killing an estimated 50,000 and affecting at least one million people. The situation in the capital Port-au-Prince and other nearby areas is dire, with hundreds of thousands of people in urgent need of assistance.

As well as distributing vital supplies the Red Cross is providing medical aid and water for survivors.”

Following this devasting natural disaster, Currencies Direct employees decided to donate all proceeds from events in January to the British Red Cross - Haiti Earthquake Appeal. The company pledged to match the amount raised so we were poised for a high donation contribution in January!

We had the usual Dress Down Fridays each week, and also a sponsored Morph run by Jamie Lesinski. This run involved Jamie wearing a skin tight bright pink all in one suit and running around the office. I’ve been assured his intentions were for good not evil and he raised an impressive £62.18 in sponsorship money. Well done Jamie - I only wish I had been in the office to see it!! This photo surely doesn’t do you justice.

The total amount raised in January was an impressive £266.50 which when matched by the company meant a whopping £533 for the victims of the earthquake. This also pushed the co-operative wall total up to £4747. A PAT ON THE BACK FOR EVERYONE IN THE OFFICE WHO CONTRIBUTED - WELL DONE!

The charities that we were originally collecting for in January - Shelter, Street Child and Mencap - we will now be supporting in the month of February.

Thank you for reading!

As well as the employees of Currencies Direct donating to good causes on a regular basis, Currencies Direct as a company likes to support good works and projects on an ad hoc basis. One of these projects that chairman Mayank Patel has felt passionate about is The Shanta Foundation set up by Waymade Healthcare.

Basildon-based pharmaceutical company Waymade Healthcare has established fresh water and eye hospital initiatives and a university for the teaching of English in India and has also set up a family foundation – the Shanta Foundation – to channel their giving and raise additional funds.
Waymade are a winner of the 2006 Coutts Prize for Family Business, designed to recognise and celebrate the best run small, medium-sized and large family businesses in England and Wales, regionally and nationally. For them corporate philanthropy is an expression of the ethos of the company, what the company is, what it does and how it does it. For these family businesses it’s right to be seen to be doing well by doing good and encouraging others to do the same.

Currencies Direct have donated £5000 to The Shanta Foundation to help their programme of offering free Coronary Care Operations for patients in Nadiad Heart Hospital and Baroda Hospital. The donation also goes towards the Shram Mandir Trust for Leprosy Detection Cure and Rehabilitation.