As many of you will know, this year we have been fundraising for Roundabout, a homeless charity supporting young people with temporary shelter and life skills in the city of Sheffield. We’ve had a fantastic year learning more about the charity and getting involved in fundraising activities. Our valiant team of Plusnet runners will be taking on their last fundraising challenge on Sunday at the Plusnet Yorkshire Marathon and we’ll let you know our grand fundraising total in the coming weeks. In the meantime, here’s a note from Amy, the Fundraising Manager at our recipient charity talking about Plusnet’s support over the last year. Amy Casbolt from Roundabout had this to say:
When Roundabout was invited to pitch to become Plusnet’s charity of the year, we knew we’d be up against stiff competition. With lots of worthy causes and well known charities, we knew that our relatively low profile and the stigma attached to our cause might mean we would be unsuccessful. I attended the pitch with two of our young people Todd and Mark, both who had been homeless and faced challenges growing up, had been forced to sleep rough over Christmas and were staying in Roundabout’s emergency hostel. We told the smiley people at Plusnet about our charity, how we helped 150 of Sheffield’s most vulnerable young people every day and why we needed Plusnet’s help to renovate our emergency hostel, a building in desperate need of a re-vamp. Despite being nervous for the pitch, we enjoyed telling people at Plusnet about our work and went away with crossed fingers hoping to hear back. A week or two later, we received a call to say we had been chosen as Plusnet’s charity for 2012/13. We were overjoyed with the news (in fact, I ran down the corridor high fiving people!) For a relatively small charity, with a big fundraising challenge, we knew with the support of staff at Plusnet we could achieve so much more. Over the last 12 months we have worked closely with the Plusnet team. They have braved dizzy heights and abseiled down their building, have taken part in a dragon boat race, organised quiz nights and worn some very snazzy Christmas jumpers to name a few activities; all to raise vital funds for Roundabout. Plusnet’s help has also gone further than financial support. Their clever techie people helped with our phone systems at our hostel, and their staff have decorated our properties and given PR and Excel training and support. The last challenge for the Plusnet team, will be for the runners taking part in the first ever Plusnet Yorkshire Marathon. A team of 20 runners, running an incredible distance all to raise money for our cause. Roundabout would like to thank everyone who has been involved in their charity partnership over the last year. Those who have donated their time or money, taken on a challenge and the hard working charity committee who put lots of time into arranging events. Your support has enabled us to renovate our emergency hostel for young people. Create a training room to teach them life skills, and create more bedrooms (extremely important when we are forced to turn away upto 25 young people each week.) You have helped to raise our profile, provide career opportunities for hard working young people who might otherwise have not been given the chance, and decorate our homes to make them more comfortable and homely for the young people who live there. Thank you for believing in Roundabout and the young people we support. We are truly grateful.
To find out more about Roundabout, go to www.roundabouthomeless.org Have you taken on any challenges to fundraise for charity? We’d love to hear what you’ve been up to...tell us by leaving a note on the comment board below.