Corporate News Look inside to find out how you could support us, just like Lakeside Village.
Bluebell Wood Children’s Hospice @BluebellWoodCH
Bluebell Wood Children’s Hospice www.bluebellwood.org
Welcome from Rachael
Welcome to the October edition of our Corporate Newsletter. We have had an incredible few months at Bluebell Wood; in July we were awarded an Institute of Fundraising award for our Soapbox Derby. The event raised over £17,000 and reached nearly a quarter of a million people on social media. There are so many ways you can get involved in events like these, either by taking part (pg.9) or through sponsorship opportunities (pg. 8).
Over the summer we also welcomed Russ Hall to our Corporate Fundraising Team. Russ used to work at Bluebell Wood as a Community Fundraiser and it’s a privilege to have him back, this time supporting our fantastic corporate partners. Finally, I would like to thank you all for your continued support. Whether you are a member of our 365 Business Club, a corporate volunteer, or an experienced event-goer, we’re so fortunate to receive support from businesses large and small. Without you, we just couldn’t help as many families as we do. Rachael Dawes, Corporate Fundraising Manager
Could we be your charity of the year?
We’re proud to have been chosen as Lakeside Village’s charity of the year, who have gone the extra mile to support us. They have held monthly ‘Bag it for Bluebell’ collections, hosted a Father’s Day Strong Man event and even took part in our Colour Dash. So far, they’ve raised almost £15,000, which will help us make a positive difference to children and families facing the toughest times imaginable. Together, we’ve been featured in the press seven times - reaching 109,418 people - at an equivalent advertising value of £6096. We have also shared updates of the partnership on our social media pages, which have a combined audience of 52,000. Choosing Bluebell Wood as your charity of the year is a great way to raise your business profile, and we’ll give you lots of support to make your fundraising a success. Call Rachael Dawes on 01909 517 367 or email rachael.dawes@bluebellwood.org to find out more about this fantastic opportunity.
Join our 365 Business Club
Becoming a Bluebell Wood 365 Business Club member is a great way to raise your company profile and engage your customers and staff, while helping support our families during the hardest times imaginable. Membership costs just £1 a day and is open to local, regional, and national organisations. There are so many benefits of joining, including:
• Invitations to our networking events, where you can have the chance to forge strong partnerships beneficial to your business • Priority access to all Bluebell Wood events and sponsorship opportunities • Exposure on our social media channels and through PR, including membership on our 365 Facebook page • A unique way to meet your corporate social responsibility • Your business logo on our corporate and Business Club webpages • Use of our 365 Business Club logo on your website, emails and print • Fundraising resources to engage your employees • A framed certificate of membership • A dedicated Corporate Account Manager to make sure our partnership meets your business objectives. For more details about our 365 Business Club, and how to become a member, call Rachael Dawes on 01909 517 367 or email rachael.dawes@bluebellwood.org
One business club membership could pay for nine bereaved families to have a counselling session when they need it most.
Bag it, don’t bin it!
One bag could pay for a play session full of lots of love and laughter.
Since our last update, businesses have been getting stuck in with our project ‘Bag It for Bluebell’. Not only is it a quick and easy way to have a clear out, each bag filled is worth £15 to Bluebell Wood. We’ll even give you your own collection bags and collect the bags when they’re full so you can host a ‘Bag It for Bluebell’ day whenever it suits you. One of our 365 Business Club members, XPO Logistics, set themselves a target of donating 300 bags by the end of their first year with us. In just a few months they have already beaten that total and collected over £7,000 worth of clothes, shoes and bric-a-brac (that’s an incredible 498 bags). The money raised could pay for 358 hours of specialised nursing care, which makes a real difference to our families. When they’re not bagging clothes, XPO Logistics have also been getting involved in lots of events, including our Dragon Boat Race. Angela, their Senior Stock handler, also baked 400 cupcakes which went down a treat with our families, volunteers and staff. We can’t wait to see what they’ll be getting up to next! If you’d like to hold your own ‘Bag it for Bluebell’ day, please contact a member of our Corporate Fundraising Team on 01909 517 367.
Wow ! Since April 2016 our corporate partners have donated over 4600 bags to Bluebell Wood!
Meet the Interserve volunteers
From paving footpaths to calling local supporters, there’s never a dull moment for our corporate volunteers, as staff from Interserve - the international support services and construction group - found out.
Sarah Madden, who works in Interserve’s Learning and Employment division, said, “I’ve always been interested in supporting Bluebell Wood so when the hospice said they were looking for volunteers to help on the phones, I thought our call centre operatives would be perfect for the job. Our team spent the day phoning local businesses with collection tins to see if they could be picked up, and everyone was so enthusiastic about the day.” Employees from the company’s Birmingham team also visited the hospice, setting up tables for our annual Volunteer Afternoon Tea and planting flowers in our beautiful Dragonfly Garden. Most recently, a 43-strong team from the Derby Construction Office braved heavy wind and rain to build our families a footpath in our orchard. The team spent three days building the £13,925 footpath, all of which was funded by the company. The new footpath means children who use a wheelchair can now explore further into our garden and even pick fruit to use in any baking they might do with us. Our Volunteer Co-ordinator, Sandra Hind, added, “We would like to say a huge thank you to Interserve for supporting us in so many ways. They have been so invested in the hospice and the work we do, and their help really has made all the difference.” Corporate volunteering is a great way to develop your skills and work as a team, while giving something back to local families. If your company would like to get involved please contact Sandra Hind, on sandra.hind@bluebellwood.org or call 01909 508 106.
“Volunteering at th e hospice was a memorable experie nce for all of us, and somethi ng that will stay with us for a long time” - Kirsten Oliver, In terserve
Ivy’s special Christmas for tea and biscuits.”
When Ivy-Rose was born, Fiona and Chris knew they would only have a s hort time to spend with their precious girl. They stayed with Ivy at Bluebell Wood for three magical weeks before she passed away; making wonderful memories and even creating Christmas in the middle of May. Fiona said, “At my 20-week scan, the doctors noticed that Ivy’s heart didn’t look right, and said we needed to go for a scan at Leeds General Infirmary. I knew straight away that we weren’t going
Fiona and Chris found out that a valve in Ivy’s heart was narrow and that she might have cystic fibrosis. Fiona said, “When they told us there was something wrong with her heart, my whole world crushed. We couldn’t believe it.” Despite months of testing and scans the hospital still didn’t understand quite what was wrong, but Fiona and Chris knew they wanted to carry on and hold Ivy in their arms. Ivy was born on 19th March in Leeds, and Fiona and Chris spent the next six weeks in hospital with their baby girl, before doctors told t hem the news that the thickening in Ivy’s heart had got worse and there was nothing more they could do. “The hospital put us in touch with Bluebell Wood, and we decided to come and stay with Ivy. We felt at home straight away. I walked Ivy down to her room which I’d never done before - and we unpacked her clothes, and bathed her for the first time.
Donating £4 ,000 to Blue bell Wood mean s we could help familie s going thro ugh the toughes t times imaginable, by providing 48 hours o f vital end of life care.
“Bluebell Wood helped us be a mum and dad to Ivy. We were able to go outside and push her in her p ushchair with the wind in her hair. It was such a special moment and we did it together.” “I knew we’d never really have Christmas with Ivy, but the Care Team helped us create our very
own Christmas Day. We decorated the tree, pulled crackers over a roast dinner, and played festive music. We even got a special card from Ivy which we’ll treasure forever. It was such an exciting and emotional day, and it was great to see Louisa, Lucy and Heather having fun with their sister.” After creating some magical memories together the family went home for three days, but on Sunday 28th May Ivy took a turn for the worse and Fiona decided to call Bluebell Wood. She said, “Diane came out and saw us and said Ivy didn’t have much time left. The Care Team helped us arrange for someone to christen her at the hospice, with all our family around her. “At 11:18pm Ivy did her very first and last smile, and four minutes later she passed away in my arms. It felt right knowing that I’d brought her into the world and that she’d left the world in my arms.” Fiona and Chris spent the next two weeks in our Forget-Me-Not suite, where they could be away from the world but could still see the Care Team whenever they needed. Fiona said, “It was lovely being in Forget-Me-Not. Pam helped us decorate Ivy’s bed with hedgehogs and butterflies, and create special memory boxes for our family, filled with moulds of her handprints and locks of her beautiful hair. “In the short time we had at Bluebell Wood, we got to be mummy and daddy to Ivy. The moments we had there aren’t just in our memories; they’re in our hearts. If we couldn’t have come here, I don’t know what we’d have done.“
r Could you help sponsor ou a day? counsellor, Angie, for £155 day, a By sponsoring Angie for a sure week, or longer, you’ll make s like she can be there for familie st. Ivy’s when they need us mo
Our star supporters
Our new ma nnequins
Morrisons funds hands-on training The expert care given by our dedicated team at Bluebell Wood has been boosted thanks to a donation of £65,650 from the Morrisons Foundation. Our Teaching and Learning Centre have bought baby and child sized training mannequins which will help us provide in-depth training at the centre and improve the care for children and young adults with life-shortening and life-threatening conditions. Liz Webster, Director of Care at Bluebell Wood, said: “One of our ambitions is to become a centre of excellence for children’s palliative care. These mannequins will allow us to offer hands on training both to our Care Team and to healthcare professionals across the region.” Royal Mail’s four years of fantastic fundraising Over the past four years Royal Mail have gone above and beyond to help raise money for Bluebell Wood. From dress down days and cake baking, to completing our Colour Dash, Adventure Challenge, and It’s A Knockout, the company has got stuck in with fundraising in whatever way they can. In that time they have raised over £40,000, which could help sponsor one of our nurses for a year, which would make a huge difference to our children and families. Cutlers Company Charitable Trust funds new parent bedrooms We’re so thankful to The Cutlers Company Charitable Trust who generously awarded Bluebell Wood an incredible grant of £2000. This will support the ongoing refurbishment of our parents’ bedrooms and will make a massive difference to the parents and families we support when they stay for short breaks. The refurbishment will allow us to provide comfortable, fresh spaces in which to give our families the privacy they need, making us a home from home.
Pennies from Heaven
Have you ever wondered how your company could make a big difference to a charity that matters to your team? Joining the Pennies From Heaven scheme is a hassle-free way for your staff to donate the small change from their salary to Bluebell Wood, and support children with life-shortening and life-threatening conditions.
By joining the scheme as an employer, your team will have the chance to sign up and donate the loose change from their monthly payslip to the hospice. The most they’ll ever give is 99p per month, but the more staff that join, the more families you’ll be supporting.
Call Rachael Dawes on 01909 517 367 to learn more about the scheme and get involved.
Net pay
£750.57
You keep
£750
We receive 57p (plus gift aid)
Becoming a corporate sponsor is one of the best ways your business can support us, helping us raise the £4 million we need to keep our doors open each year as well as boosting your company profile.
Sponsorship opportunities
Our dedicated Corporate Fundraising Team will work with you to create a sponsorship package tailored to your business, whether you want to cover the costs of an event or newsletter, or sponsor a member of our Care Team. Sheffield car dealership, John Holland, were one of the sponsors of our Supercar Experience at Meadowhall, and also sponsored the start and finish line at our national award-winning Soapbox Derby.
Natalie Holland said, “After visiting Bluebell Wood there was no doubt in my mind that we had to help. We were really keen to get involved with the Soapbox Derby - the car connection sits perfectly with our brand and it is such a fun and interactive way to support the hospice. We love working with Bluebell Wood and we are looking forward to many more partnerships in the future.”
Interested?
Find out more about our sponsorship opportunities and how to get involved by contacting Rachael Dawes on 01909 517 367.
Conquer the elements
Whether you’re a first time fundraiser or a seasoned supporter, taking part in one of our events is a great way to have fun with your team and raise money for us at the same time.
Colour Dash - Saturday 28th April 2018 Back by popular demand, our Colour Dash is guaranteed to be the region’s brightest 5K run. To add to the fun, not only will you have to navigate the clouds of colourful paints, this year’s dash will feature our first foam station! So whether you walk, run or wheel around the course, you’ll finish the day in a magnificent rainbow of colour and bubbles. Skydives and Wingwalks Feeling on top of the world? Why not take to the skies with our Skydive and Wingwalk? Choose to skydive and you’ll be able to experience the UK’s highest tandem jump, flying to an incredible 15,000ft. Dare to Wingwalk and you’ll reach amazing speeds of 130mph. Or if you’re up for a whirlwind of a time be adventurous and take on both. Yorkshire Three Peaks Challenge - Saturday 23rd June 2018 Be at one with nature and take on the Three Peaks Challenge. You’ll get to trek over the famous terrain whilst taking in the spectacular views of Ingleborough, Whernshide and Pen-y-ghent, all in under 12 hours! 10th Birthday Ball - Saturday 29th September 2018 It’s time to save the date in your calendar and find a showstopping outfit - we’re organising a glittering birthday ball! It’s a great way to help us celebrate our 10th birthday in style while raising money for our children and families. We’ll be releasing more information soon so make sure to check our social media for more details. If you would like to take part in any of our events, contact our Events Fundraiser, Jo Berry, on 01909 517 365. You can also sign up using our free events app; simply search ‘Bluebell Wood Events’ on the Apple or Google stores.
Christmas Jumper Day Friday 8th Dec
Do your bit in a festive knit!
Wear your silliest seasonal sweater at work and donate ÂŁ1. Find out more at www.bluebellwood.org
Win
Charity no: 1076958 Company no: 3809663
£ 2 5 0 0
in our seasonal Superdraw Tickets X£mas1
The perfect your thank you for team! Visit our webs ite at www.bluebellwo od.org to play
wishlist
If you fancy buying our children and families a gift this Christmas, why not take a look at our Amazon wishlist?
Visit www.bluebellwood.org/wishlist to browse our list to Santa, and choose an item to donate. Don’t forget to leave your company contact details so we can thank you for your generosity. Photo/graphic credits:Ant Oxley Photography, Remember my Baby Photography, Freepik