D-ARAG-ON RACERS!

On Sunday the 10th of June our team of Viking warriors, the D-ARAG-ON RACERS, took part in the Bristol Dragon Boat Festival. This festival is an annual event organised by the Rotary Club of Bristol in order to raise money for Caring in Bristol, a charity to benefit the homeless.

After weeks of training an elite team of 20 D-ARAG-ONS took to the high seas (well, the Bristol harbour) and raced against 29 other teams to see who could cover 200m in as short a time as possible. We had three attempts at this and got better with every run. Our final round we were over 5 seconds faster than the first!

Whilst we came 27^th out of 30 we still had a great time on the day, raising money for Caring in Bristol and our charity of the year Focus. We managed to raise £1,182.50 (including Gift Aid) in advance and even more on the day in cash donations from fans and supporters.

We also had an ARAG yellow gazebo set up by the water all day with our Head of Sales, Andy Talbot, flipping burgers for hours on end to keep the hungry D-ARAG-ONS and their friends and family fuelled up for the races.

It was a really great day, with fantastic weather and a lot of fun had by all. And we were watching the techniques of the best teams, so we’ll do much better next time!

If you'd like to donate towards this great cause you can do so by clicking here to go to our Virgin Money Giving page.

Click here to watch the team warming up!

Cycling to success

In 2017, we had the challenge of raising £5,000 for our charity of the year, FOCUS: the charitable fund of the Gloucestershire NHS oncology centre, and we are pleased to say that we achieved this target, and more!

Our enthusiastic staff have cycled to Düsseldorf, run around Bristol in Santa Claus costumes and baked to their hearts content, raising an incredible £12,000 for a range of charities! We are delighted with this achievement and would like to say a huge THANK YOU to all who donated and supported us along the way.

The Bristol to Düsseldorf charity bike ride was a great team effort, with 37 members of staff taking part and cycling 820 kilometres in 8 1/2 hours.

“It was fantastic to see so many people contributing so much time and raising so much money. What was really incredible is that besides the generous online donations, we received £300 from morning commuters just passing by – we must have looked rather amusing,” says Ian Screen, HR & Facilities Manager.

We were also delighted to receive the Payroll Giving Platinum award which recognises our commitment in fostering a culture of philanthropy and committed giving in the workplace, with over 20% of our staff regularly donating to charity through Payroll Giving.

“Our CSR policy expresses our commitment to being a socially responsible employer and enterprise,” declares Tony Buss, Managing Director. “We’re proud that so many of our employees support the various charity actions.”

Keep updated with our 2018 fundraising activities on our social media and visit our fundraising page here: https://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/ARAGLEI