Here at Shepherds Friendly Society, we recently had the pleasure of presenting the charity Seashell Trust with a cheque for £1,100 just in time for Christmas. The money was raised by our generous staff and board members via various fundraising activities and donations.
Seashell Trust is a wonderful charity that is dedicated to providing a creative, happy and secure environment for children and adults with complex and severe learning disabilities. We are very proud of the support and commitment shown by our staff members towards the charity this year, from fundraising via running the Colour Run to helping out with gardening on their site.
We have recapped our year in partnership with the Seashell Trust below:
Easter bunny visit
This Easter, our operations and conduct director, Wendy, visited the Seashell Trust dressed as the Easter bunny to hand out Easter presents to the students. We also sent two other members of staff, head of sales, Antony, and head of people and culture, Nasrin, to be the Easter bunny’s helpers. Wendy was a big hit as the Easter bunny, and all the students really enjoyed the afternoon.
CADS volunteering
In May, members of our Shepherds Friendly Society team spent the day volunteering on site with the Seashell Trust.
Our staff members helped out with the Children’s Able and Disabled Sports classes, or CADS. They ensured the Seashell students were safe and had as much fun as possible while taking part in activities such as tennis, swimming and volleyball. The students and the staff worked really hard throughout the day, but also really enjoyed themselves. The day was a great success.
5k Colour Run
In the summer, five of our bravest staff members donned their running shoes and completed the Manchester 5K Colour Run in aid of the Seashell Trust. Through their fundraising, they managed to raise £200 for Seashell. They also had a great time running 5K while being pelted with colour, and were all thoroughly exhausted by the end of the day.
Shepherds Friendly gardens
At the beginning of October, on an unseasonably warm day, three of our staff members again visited the Seashell Trust site and did some gardening and weeding to help make more of the site accessible to students. Our staff spent the day clearing out the area using rakes, shears and wheelbarrows. At the conclusion of the day they were delighted to have the opportunity to tour the brand new facilities the Seashell Trust has had built and were very impressed.
Annual charity Christmas lunch
In December, we held our annual charity Christmas lunch at our new head office in Cheadle. Our staff members helped prepare and arrange a delicious Christmas lunch and all wore their favourite Christmas jumpers, with prizes awarded for the best ones and the most festive departments. During the lunch, a collection was passed around for the Seashell Trust. We managed to raise a wonderful £126 in just one afternoon from all our generous staff members.
Throughout the whole of 2015 we raised a total of £1,100 for the Seashell Trust through our staff members volunteering and fundraising work. Our staff know how important it is to give back to the local community, and are always very generous with both offering their time to help at the charity on site and to donate to our fundraising efforts.
Wendy Bray, corporate & individual giving fundraiser at Seashell Trust, said:
‘We are so grateful for everything that Shepherds Friendly Society have done for us over the last year and how all the staff have engaged with our cause. Not only has their fundraising enabled our new wildlife garden but teams of staff have given up their time to come and volunteer for us too. Thank you to you all.’
Seashell Trust do wonderful work, and are always looking for enthusiastic volunteers to help with activities, fundraising and maintenance around the centre. If you would like any further information about what they do or how you can help out, please visit their website.
