As well as using our digital technology to create social benefits for people, we help our people directly support local communities. Our teams are spread across the UK and abroad and care passionately about helping with local causes and concerns where they live and work. So on Wednesday 20th July, our network of Charity Champions helped to organise our first ever Virgin Media Charity Day. We asked Lisa Cogdell-Brown, our South West (Trowbridge, Winchester, Bristol) Regional Charity Champ to tell us more about what happened...
How long have you been a charity champ and how did you get involved?
Hi, I'm Lisa and my day job involves managing the Trowbridge Angels, our concierge service for employees. On top of this, I’m a Regional Charity Champ, which involves working with our employees to hold fundraising days or events that get everyone inspired and engaged. It's also about helping people use their volunteer days. We have some great links within our local community and my role is to make these relationships even stronger.
How did the idea of a company-wide charity day come about?
Virgin Media employees do some pretty amazing stuff, raising thousands of pounds a year for the charities they’re passionate about. We thought it was about time to refresh our commitment and approach to local charity and we wanted to celebrate this on one day, across all regions and involving our offshore partners.
What we're you raising money for?
We've asked all employees to nominate and then vote for up to three local charities to support. We collected the votes and in our region, the chosen charities were Dorothy House and Forever Friends Charity.
What happened on the day?
On Wednesday 20th July, we had a whole day dedicated to having some Virgin style fun at work, while raising money for some fantastic causes. We created loads of ways for everyone to get involved, from a simple vote to decide which charity to support, to a day’s volunteering, to raising lots of money for the causes they’re most passionate about. Our CEO & Group Executive Committee got fully involved at our sites across the UK and were even seen handing out bacon butties and having wet sponges thrown in their face, all for a good cause. We ran several national competitions and all sites shared their news and pictures 'live' on our intranet throughout the day.
The day was even better than expected! A highlight from the day was seeing some of our Executive Directors take part in a space hopper relay race. But my personal favourite was having one of our team, Hayley Friday, spring a surprise by being able to hula hoop for over 41 minutes. I'm really proud of what our region achieved on the day.
What was the best thing about the day?
Getting everyone having a go and getting involved. It was brilliant!