SWINDON -Wednesday 23 April 2008
Charities and community groups across the UK are set to benefit as Challenge 2008, the annual volunteer event organised by Zurich’s Community Trust, the charitable arm of leading financial services group Zurich in the UK, launches across the country.
Started in 1990, Challenge is one of the largest corporate charity programmes in the UK. Every year Zurich encourages organisations local to its main offices to challenge its 8,000 staff to help make a difference. This year the company received in excess of 200 challenges from organisations based around Zurich's main office locations in Fareham, Farnborough, Swindon, Cheltenham, Leeds and Birmingham.
Details of the challenges were sent to staff in Zurich and staff in Capita working on the Zurich account yesterday and within a couple of hours over 130 of the projects had already been taken up. The challenges range from building a fox-proof chicken house for single homeless people's charity Threshold Housing Link in Swindon to decorating a classroom which hasn’t had a lick of paint for twenty years at Meadows Special School in Birmingham to arranging a day out for people with disabilities for people from Bells Piece in Farnham.
Cheltenham based children’s bereavement charity, Winston’s Wish, which is one of Zurich's Community Trust local charity partners and has benefited from the Challenge initiative for over five years, has challenged staff this year to hand out refreshments and medals at their Family Fun Run and to help run their Wish Upon a Star campaign in the Regent Arcade in Cheltenham where the public are encouraged to purchase a star and dedicate it to someone special.
Commenting, Julie Stokes, Founder of Winston’s Wish said 'The Challenge volunteers are an inspiration to all and we're proud to call them friends as well as supporters'.
Pam Webb, Head of the Zurich Community Trust comments: “Challenge has become a key annual volunteering event at Zurich and very much part of its corporate culture. It is eagerly anticipated and always captures the imagination of Zurich staff, inspiring them to do great things to help local charities and community groups.”
