In November, we asked 30 colleagues across our offices to help us raise £3,000 by taking part in 30 challenges over 30 days. For each sign-up, the Ledingham Chalmers Charitable Trust pledged to donate £30, with a further £30 for successful completion.
Ultimately 56 colleagues took part in around 70 challenges.
As a result, £4,000 will be split evenly between Northcote Lodge Care Home, Aberdeen; Strathcarron Hospice, Denny; Southpark Retirement Home, Edinburgh; and Ballifeary House, Inverness. All have links with Ledingham Chalmers.
Activities included —
Our talented craft club made and sold festive wreaths, raising £500. Wreaths left over were donated to Charlie House to sell in Curated Aberdeen in the city's Bon Accord Centre
The Inverness office smashed its target of providing 30kg of supplies each to Highland Foodbank and the local SSPCA
Twenty-one people from across different offices gave blood
Thirty-six climbed 30 flights of stairs
Other activities include 30 days of 30-minute exercise, 30 half-hour walks, 30 days refined sugar or alcohol-free, 30 acts of kindness, daily affirmations and 30 different runs over 30 days
Thirty peaks
The November efforts followed our 30 peaks challenge in July 2021 where we donated £3,000 to Scottish Mountain Rescue, which does an amazing job looking after those out on the hills 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.
Here, we asked 30 colleagues to climb 30 peaks (large or small) on or around 31 July. Thirty-one took part, reaching 37 summits of 25 different hills and mountains.
Our most northerly peak was the highest point on Mousa, Shetland, while others tackled the likes of Mount Keen, Clachnaben, Beinn Bhuidhe, the Chalamain Gap and Ben More.
The highest peak climbed was Ben Nevis. Private client team associate Dara Kinloch reached the top with her brother after four-and-a-half hours.
In what has been, again, such a difficult year for so many, it’s hard to express just how grateful we are to everyone who took on a challenge — some more than one — to help these organisations that do so much for our local communities.
Meanwhile there’s more to do. Between March 2020 and April 2021 our charitable trust donated a total of £6,000 to good causes in the communities in which we operate.
Watch this space for an update on our Christmas card donations. For every card we send we’ll donate to Social Bite, a major employer of people experiencing homelessness and extreme employment barriers, as well as Highland Foodbank, which provides emergency support to local people in crisis.
