Member Article

Much needed donation to charity

As of today, the Percy Hedley Foundation in Newcastle are over £2000 better off, thanks to the fund raising efforts of Rothbury design and marketing studio, lazy grace.

For the past 6 months, lazy grace have been taking part in the Percy Hedley’s fundraising campaign, the Challenge 500 where they threw down the gauntlet to local businesses to turn an initial £500 loan into as much profit as possible for the charity.

How this investment was used was up to the business in question, so – in typical lazy grace fashion – Northumberland’s first Soapbox Derby was organised within the beautiful and challenging Simonside Forest, one of the National Forestry Commissions jewel’s in their crown.

Participants from local organisations got involved by designing, building and ultimately racing home-made soapboxes down the inaugural track which included a 7ft cow, a 2 man sheep and The Marsden Rattler – a scale sized truck built by Owen Pugh.

Ultimately, and after a challenging day including various fund raising activities and a raffle, lazy grace were happy to be able to present the charity with this sum. Ian McAllister of lazy grace said “We have thoroughly enjoyed raising this much needed money for the charity and having met the staff and service users certainly won’t just be stopping here. Percy Hedley need every penny that they can raise, so the more we can do for them the better.”

Julie Calvert, Head of Marketing, Communications and Income Generation said “The money raised at the event will help us continue to support over 1,000 disabled people in our region. 2013 is a very special year for the Percy Hedley Foundation as we are celebrating our Diamond Jubilee. We were set up by a group of parents back in 1953 and have grown to become one of the largest regional charities supporting disabled people. Our vision is quite simple “Achievement for All”. We believe that everything is possible but we can’t do it without your support.”

Managing director of lazy grace, John Tait, said “I can’t tell you how happy I am that we have managed to raise this amount for Percy Hedley – the smiles on their faces when we turned up with the cart to present the cheque was infectious!”

The only question left to answer is will there be a soapbox challenge next year? “Well” said Ian “it’s a question I’ve been asked a lot since the event, but my answer to that is why stop at soapboxes? Our company ethos of Getting Things Done means that by this time next year we could have organised anything….. and we’re not ruling out a home-made flying craft event…..”

The Percy Hedley Foundation is a registered charity. Founded in 1953 as a specialist school for children with cerebral palsy; the aim of the Foundation is to ensure that children and adults with a disability learn the skills to be independent as possible and enjoy full and active lives.

For a full list of our services visit www.percyhedley.org.uk

lazy grace are a full service design and marketing agency based in Rothbury, just at the foot of the Simonside Hills. Which means that they get a lot of opportunities to practice in their soapbox cart.

www.lazygrace.com

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by lazy grace .