10 March 2003
LONDON 10 March 2003 - Zurich staff will be out in full force for Comic Relief Day, 14 March. Over 1,000 Zurich staff volunteers will either be giving up their evenings to take pledges at five different call centres (Swindon, Portsmouth, Fareham, Newcastle and Leeds) or participating in a wide range of fundraising activities in Zurich offices throughout the UK.
Zurich staff will be actively involved with this year's Comic Relief theme, the "big hair do", where they'll be redressing their tresses by cutting, curling, dying, twisting, bunching and scrunching. They will be motivated by the knowledge that on the last Comic Relief Day, Zurich staff raised £69,000 and took pledges from the general public for a grand total of £1,182,721, making Zurich officially the very best Comic Relief employee fundraiser in 2001. Visit the official Red Nose Day website on www.rednoseday.com
Staff fundraising activity will take place at Zurich's regional offices including London, Swindon, Portsmouth, Fareham, Sutton, Newcastle, Leeds and Cheltenham. Zurich staff volunteers will be participating in the following:
LONDON: 14 March -The official Red Nose Day Fun Run in London, sponsored by Vauxhall Corsa, the Fun Run will take place along the South Bank of the Thames.
SWINDON: 14 March - Taking pledges on the night, paying to throw wet sponges at colleagues and paying £1.00 each to wear the most weirdest and wackiest slippers to work.
PORTSMOUTH: 14 March - Taking pledges on the night and getting "reddy" by paying £1 wearing all red clothes to work.
FAREHAM: 14 March - Baking cakes, getting sponsored to dress up daft and guessing how many hair accessories are on a person's head.
SUTTON: 14 March - Guess the number of sweets in the jar, guess the weight of the cake, bell boys in the lifts charging 20p per journey and running a red raffle.
NEWCASTLE: 14 March - Taking pledges on the night, participating in a 70's hair day, a quiz and cooking some of Jamie Oliver's "funky cooking" recipes from the special booklet available from Sainsburys.
LEEDS: 14 March - Taking phone pledges at Leeds, managers being a gopher for the day and collecting money from as many people as possible.
CHELTENHAM: 14 March - Guess the number of hair accessories, wearing anything red for the day, spray your manager's head and two men have volunteered to have their bodies waxed for £3 a strip
The fundraising activity has already started for this year by selling red noses and auctioning two exclusive Red Nose (2003) T-shirts signed by Frank Skinner, Martin Clunes and Richard Blackwood.
Chris Staples, Community Affairs Director, commented, "Once again our employees have come up with inventive ways to support Comic Relief, and many have given up their evenings to take pledges in our call centres. While it is fun for staff, the much needed funds address the very real needs highlighted by Comic Relief."
Press enquiries to:
Zurich Financial Services
Kate Hodges, Zurich, 01793 503711 or kate.hodges@uk.zurich.com
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Notes to Editors:
Red Nose Day is a national fundraising event that takes place every two years and is organised by Comic Relief. Comic Relief was launched on Christmas Day 1985 from the Safawa refuges camp in Sudan, in response to growing needs in the UK and Africa, and they are seriously committed to helping poverty and social injustice. Over £250 million has been raised since Comic Relief began with over £55 million raised during the last Red Nose Day.
Zurich seeks to be a responsible corporate citizen and considers it an important part of successful business performance. Community remains high on its agenda. Zurich has a strong track record of supporting local communities with funding, time and expertise and has received recognition for its groundbreaking work from Business In the Community, Whitbread and the Insurance Times.
The Zurich Community Trust, a registered charity funded by pre-tax profits and donations from its people, provides an umbrella for all community involvement in the UK.
- Zurich Cares Trust Programmes create sustainable change through long-term funding and active involvement. Zurich works closely with innovative partners to significantly impact the lives of disadvantaged people in the UK and overseas. The Programmes tackle social exclusion, dementia and the most vulnerable older people's issues.
- Zurich Cares manages Zurich employees' and financial advisers' £1 million donations, 20,000 hours of volunteering including more than 200 annual challenge activities.
Visit our website on www.zurich.org.uk for more details.
