Alex Mackay: Walk of fame
Andrew Kay talks to Mishon Mackay’s Alex Mackay about his staff’s recent cross-country charity fundraising success
The Mishon Mackay sponsored walk for Chestnut Tree House raised a stunning £2,931.06, a fantastic result and Chestnut Tree House are delighted with this huge effort from the team. Alex Mackay and Marc Cox visited Chestnut Tree House, on Thursday 18 November for the official cheque presentation.
The team, about 30 members of the Mishon Mackay company, walked from their Hurstpierpoint office to their Hove office (well, actually Hove Rugby Football Club), where they enjoyed an indoor barbecue party. It was supposed to be outside but the weather on the day was dreadful. At a distance of around 13 miles, the route was over the South Downs and in to Hove.
The going was pretty tough due to the inclement weather. As they approached the finish the rain became torrential and they all arrived at the rugby club soaked through but exhilarated.
Alex Mackay’s mammoth cycle ride from Land’s End to John O’Groats took 15 days and he cycled the 868 miles in a team of four with each cyclist raising funds for their own chosen charity. Alex was raising funds for Kangaroos, a local charity in Haywards Heath. He raised over £3,000 pounds and Kangaroos were overwhelmed by everyone’s generosity.
For a small charity a sum of money like this makes a massive difference to their day to day fundraising efforts. Mishon Mackay would also like to point out that both events are still on the JustGiving website at www.justgiving.com/Mishon-Mackay and www.justgiving.com/alex-le2jog , so you can check out their pages to get the full story on their chosen charities.
Even more impressive is that following their team success they have a number of staff who will be fundraising for their chosen charities in next year’s Brighton Marathon and Mishon Mackay also are looking forward to running another charity team event.
This proved to be a great team building project. Not only did they all really enjoy the day’s walk, even though it was a wet Sunday, but they were inspired by Alex’s cycle challenge. Every member of staff sponsored him and Alex was greatly encouraged by their support.
“I think we all find it terribly easy to talk about raising money for wholly worthwhile causes but making it happen often seems a step too far,” says Alex. “During the early part of this year at one of our monthly managers’ meetings we raised this topic and set up a charity committee to choose the charity, the event and the timing.
Chestnut Tree House was chosen due to its high profile in the Brighton area and the fantastic work it does in supporting terminally ill children and their families. The logical event for us was to walk from our Hurstpierpoint office to Hove via the South Downs, a walk of some 13 miles completed by 32 willing walkers who collectively raised just short of £3,000 in total.
“Inspired by my staff’s enthusiasm for raising money for good causes, I decided to set my own challenge and raise money for a small, local mid Sussex charity – Kangaroos – by cycling from Land’s End to John O’Groats. Together with three friends, we started training in March in order to undertake our challenge in September, each one of us cycling for our individual charity cause.
With six months’ training under our belt, we all successfully completed the ride in 15 days and with the support of my staff and so many friends and members of my family I raised just over £3,000 for Kangaroos.”
So what happens next? “Many members of staff were so inspired by the team’s effort this year that they will be individually raising monies for charity in 2011, via such events as the Brighton Marathon, the London To Brighton Bike Ride and the London to Paris Bike Ride. In addition, our fundraising committee already has its eye on 2012 when Mishon Mackay will celebrate its 25th year in business.”
“We are so grateful to Mishon Mackay and all their employees for their fantastic support and their very generous donation to Chestnut Tree House children’s hospice,” says Sarah Arnold, Corporate Fundraising Manager at Chestnut Tree House children’s hospice.
“Our hospice relies heavily on the support of local companies such as Mishon Mackay to help us raise the vital funds we need to operate. What a great idea the sponsored walk was and it is brilliant to see their employees get on board and get involved with Chestnut Tree House. A big thank you to them all.”
Jenni Herrett at Kangaroos adds: “Everyone at Kangaroos is in awe of Alex’s efforts and achievement on our behalf and so grateful for the huge amount of donations raised, making a major contribution to our aim to raise funds to buy a minibus next year.”
LATEST NEWS: In recognition of their success, Alex and his team scooped the charity award for their fundraising efforts at the recent Mayfair Office Annual Conference and Dinner.
www.mishonmackay.com
