Colourful activities provide a welcome financial boost for Rainbows
Page Kirk supported Rainbows Hospice for children and young people throughout 2022. Amanda Willis, who coordinates our charity fundraising, looks back at the last year.
At the end of 2021, the Page Kirk and Page Kirk Financial Services team voted for which charity they would like to support in 2022. I was extremely pleased that the team voted for Rainbows to be our charity of the year. It's a hospice for children and young people, which provides specialist respite, palliative and end-of-life care to those with life limiting or life-threatening conditions. The charity also provides support to their families and friends.
How Rainbows helps
Sadly, some parents are forced to go through the heartbreak of a child diagnosed with life-limiting and life-threatening illnesses. For families across the East Midlands, who are going through the toughest time imaginable, Rainbows are there to support them. Since 1994, the organisation has cared for children, helped relieve pain and symptoms, created memories for families to treasure and provided comfort and compassion – both at the time of the death of a child or young person and in the period that follows.
Rainbows enables parents to spend the limited time they have with their child in a fun, creative and caring environment. After all, every family deserves to spend quality time together without worrying about what the future might hold.
The Rainbows hospice has 12 beds and provides 1-to-1 care. Their team of nurses help with end-of-life care, symptom management, short breaks and respite care. Other services they offer include bereavement support, sibling support, and therapies such as hydrotherapy, aromatherapy and music and play therapy.
The charity gets only around 15% of their funding from government bodies, so they rely on donations to fund the care they give. To remain open, they need to raise over £6 million a year.
What we did
At the beginning of the year, we started working with Rainbows with their Recycle with Rainbows Scheme. We had a collection bin in reception for anyone to donate their unwanted items. These items would then be collected and sold in their charity shops to raise vital funds.
Love was in the air in February with our Valentine's Day raffle and, at the end of the month. We held our was our first quiz, which was followed by a second in March.
In April, the team went on a charity Easter egg hunt.
We had a charity Queen's Platinum Jubilee celebration at the end of May. which included games, quizzes and lunch.
August saw the team dress up in silver, organise a cake sale and take part in another quiz.
In October we had a whole day dedicated to Rainbows, full of fundraising, laughter and games. We even had a special guest, Bow the Bear, Rainbows' very own mascot, who came and paid us a visit. He even had a go at running the reception, photocopying and answering the phones.
To celebrate Halloween, we had a frightful day including dress up, pumpkin carving and pumpkin bowling.
In November, the team brought Christmas presents for Rainbows to give out at their Christmas party. I managed to drop them off at Rainbows HQ and got to look around their amazing grounds.
To start the festive celebrations, we did a Christmas quiz in the office with mulled wine and mince pies early in December. We also held our annal Christmas jumper day and dress down every week leading up to Christmas. A charity raffle throughout December included prizes such as booze hamper, cheese hamper, Prosecco and nibbles hamper and elf in a balloon.
This year has been the first year we could properly arrange fundraising activities in the office, after a couple of years of Covid restrictions. It's been a great year of fundraising and has really brought the team together.
Kirsty Coxon, Corporate Partnership Fundraiser from Rainbows commented:
"Fundraising is a great way for companies to support local causes and help local communities. We were lucky enough to be selected as Page Kirk's Charity of the Year in 2022 and it has been brilliant to work with them. The fundraising was led by Amanda and Rebekah, who came up with lots of fun fundraising activities and the whole team got behind them! It was great to work with a company so dedicated to raising funds and awareness for Rainbows. A big thank you from all the staff, volunteers and families here! Your hard work will help us continue to brighten short lives across the East Midlands."
A massive thank you to Rainbows who have supported our fundraising activities throughout 2022. They have been a fantastic cause to help, but also a great charity to work with.
We are proud to have raised £1,306 for Rainbows. So another massive thank you to the whole Page Kirk and Page Kirk Financial Service teams for getting involved.
This year we are not nominating a charity of the year and have decided to do something a little different. Stay tuned for more information!
