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When two Orchids come together.

Orchid are delighted to have been chosen by The Orchid Group as their charity of the year.

In April 2011, we interviewed Katie Sparkes who looks after the PR for The Orchid Group, about why they got involved with supporting our work and their fundraising for Orchid to date.

What made you want to start supporting us?

"Each year, Orchid puts a variety of charities to a staff vote letting them choose the charity they would like to support. We tend to go for smaller or less well-known charities so that Orchid's support can be targeted to a cause where we can have a real impact.

This year 1,200 staff members voted and overwhelmingly opted to support Orchid Cancer. The online poll was open to all employees, from kitchen porters and glass collectors right through to the senior management team. The namesake link works well too!" 

You have come up with some fantastic fundraising ideas. Where did the inspiration come from?

"Corporate social responsibility is key to Orchid's ethos but the idea is to get really stuck in and hands on rather than just raising money and handing it over! The quirkier the idea the better really. We love 'team challenges' or anything that involves people of all levels or geographic regions coming together. The Big Swim where we collectively swam the equivalent distance of The Channel was a great example. It was loads of fun and there was an amazing moment when everyone jumped into the swimming pool together to kick it off!"

How did you get your friends/colleagues on board?

"We communicate activities through Orchid’s Facebook and Twitter pages, the weekly internal newspaper and quarterly staff magazine as well as via email.  The communications team also publicise it by word of mouth."

What’s been the most rewarding part of your fundraising experience so far? 

"The feel good factor of coming together to achieve a common goal – there is a real buzz in the air and everyone gets so much out of participating."

What next? 

"The Big Slim is still underway and next is The Great Escape where we’ll be ‘running away’ – seeing how far we can get with only the clothes on our backs!  We’ll be rattling Orchid collection tins en route and help to raise lots of money!"

The Orchid Group Three Peaks Challenge 1 - 3 July 2011

On Friday 1st July 2011, eleven brave colleagues from right across The Orchid Group set off for Scotland to embark on the Three Peaks Challenge. On Saturday morning after an early start, first off was to climb Ben Nevis at 1,344m and the group completed the challenge in good spirits and glorious weather. After completing challenge number one it was time to get in the minibus and head down the motorway to tackle Scafell Pike in the Lake District at a height of 978m. Challenge number two complete, they travelled through the night down to Snowdon where it was time for their last challenge - conquering Snowdon at a height of 1,085m and their mission was complete within 28 hours of their starting time. Congratulations to all our Orchid Group trekkers and thank you for helping to raise almost £6,000 towards our work.

Congratulations and thank you to The Orchid Group for helping to raise over £10,000 towards our work to date.