From left to right: Ricky D'Gama, Katie Bagley, Joaquin Meneses, Richard Jardine, Peter Smith, Katie Haylock, Alex Owen, Cecilia Makinde, Rebecca Smith, Andrew Halliday, Matt Rowe, Andrea Danieli Andrei.
Swindon, 2nd December 2011: Forget the Junior Apprentice and think the Zurich Apprentice.
Zurich’s very own Lord Sugar (Tim Culling, UK Operations Director, Global Life) inspired two teams in its Swindon offices to go head-to-head in a bid to raise over £2000 for Swindon and District Samaritans.
This was one of 55 Zurich Community Trust’s Festive Challenges where staff volunteer their time to help charities, ranging form organising a Christmas lunch to putting up decorations in a Children’s centre.
Under the watchful eyes of Zurich’s own Karen Brady (Katie Haylock) and Nick Hewer (Richard Jardine), two teams made up of graduates and interns named Zynergy and Samar InternZ battled it out to see who could make the most money for the Samaritans.
Fundraising involved selling a lot of cakes, sweets and doughnuts, quizzes as well as a raffle.
“We wanted to do something fun and raise as much money as we could for the Samaritans.” explained organiser, Katie Haylock from Zurich’s Business and IT Change. She added “The Swindon and District Samaritans offers emotional support to those in crisis. For some Christmas can be a very lonely day and we wanted to do something special to make a difference to those who won’t have families and friends around like most of us do.
“We were hoping to raise the amount it costs to keep the Samaritans open for Christmas day but we have now raised ten times that amount”.
Paul Bentley, a key member of the Swindon and District Samaritans, had this to say about how the money raised will help the branch on Christmas day:
"Christmas and New Year is a busy time for Samaritans and along with my fellow volunteers we’ll be on duty throughout the festive period, night and day, to support those for whom life just gets too much. Quite simply, their festive challenge will go directly towards paying the phone bill and keeping the lights on; every £10 raised will enable us to answer 3 calls from people in distress. So on behalf of Swindon and District Samaritans ‘thank you and Merry Christmas ~ mince pie anyone?’"
Pam Webb, Head of Zurich Community Trust welcomes the initiative of this team: “Our staff are renowned for their enterprising fund raising ideas and generosity. This fundraising effort for Swindon & District Samaritans is no exception.”
Both teams were called to the Boardroom where it was declared that Zynergy had raised the most money. But ultimately it was the users of the Samaritans services that won this task.
