TEAM-BUILDING EXERCISE RESULTS IN £2,000 CHEQUE FOR LOCAL CHARITY

Staff at a housing association have handed over a cheque for over £2,000 to a Norfolk mental health charity after smashing a fundraising target set on a team-building day – thanks to the generosity of dozens of Norwich businesses.

The 75 members of staff of Victory Housing Trust, on a staff awayday, were set the task of raising just £100 for Norwich and Central Norfolk MIND by begging items from local businesses to be auctioned at the end of the day. 

Thanks to their enthusiasm, and the kindness of over 140 city shops and businesses, they raised over 20 times that target.

“When we were asked to seek auction items from businesses, it put me right outside my comfort zone,” said Karen Bonshor, finance assistant at the Trust, which manages over 5,000 affordable homes in the northern half of the county.  “But we got stuck in, and people were so generous.”

A huge range of items were donated by local businesses, including meals at restaurants, wine, chocolate, fashion items, a barbecue and even a basket of fruit from a stall on the market.

The auction held at the end of the training day – together with a subsequent raffle for items which there was no time to put under the hammer – raised a total of £2073.49.

“This is such an innovative approach to both team-building and to fund-raising,” said Norwich and Central Norfolk MIND chief executive Amanda Hedley, who visited Victory’s North Walsham headquarters to be presented with the cheque.

“We are very grateful to all of the staff at Victory for their hard work, as well as the shops and businesses which donated items.

“We will be putting the money raised towards our services for young people, including our Youth MIND First Aid programme, and activities to develop awareness, and to help young people with mental health issues to engage with others.”

John Archibald, chief executive of Victory Housing Trust, added, “This started as a small-scale team-building exercise, designed to get our staff working together towards a common aim, and to develop their negotiation skills.

“We should have known that our staff would embrace it so wholeheartedly, and achieve a result far beyond the target that we set them.  Not only did the exercise achieve its training aims, it has also resulted in a big financial boost for an excellent charity which we already work with in a number of ways.”