Premierline smashes target for local hospice fundraiser

St. John’s Hospice Charity Challenge sees Premierline raise over £4,500 for charity

50 businesses from the Lancashire and South Lakes area have taken part in the St. John’s Hospice charity challenge which saw their teams attempt to raise £500 in 50 working days across May, June and July 2023.

Not one to shy away from a challenge, Premierline set out by assigning each team within the business the task of raising £50 for the duration of the challenge, a target that each team has smashed through innovative and creative fundraising which sees Premierline raise a grand total of £4,930.55 for St. John’s Hospice! Read on to find out more about how our teams have been involved, undertaking everything from half marathons to bake sales, charity car washes and even an in-office leg wax!

The Great Hospice Bake Off

To help kick start the challenge and learn more about the crucial work of St. John’s Hospice, the Premierline team took part in a baking competition which was judged by a tough panel of patients and hospice staff. The Premierline team baked up some delicious food, including cakes, brownies, fudge and a show stopping Cheese & Onion Flan – the judge’s favourite and perhaps worthy of a Hollywood handshake had it appeared on the Great British Bake Off!

Visiting the hospice was a great way for the team to learn more about why fundraising activities like the 50-50-500 challenge are so vital for the day to day running of the hospice, who rely heavily on donations in order to continue to operate in the community that it has served now for over 35 years.

Charity challenge highlights

Each team within the business had been assigned the task of raising £50 each in order to contribute to Premierline’s fundraising total. Representatives from each team then went to work coming up with innovative ways to raise the money which inevitably led to some fun, exciting and often tasty events popping up during the challenge period. Here’s a few of Premierline’s fundraising highlights:

The marketing team carried out two charity car washes across June, washing as many as 50 cars over two afternoons and raising £270 in the process.

One of Premierline’s broker teams took on the challenge by running a football card sweepstake which proved to be a hit in the office!

A charity raffle which included some incredible prizes donated by businesses across the north west added an additional £720 to the fundraising total. The raffle was open to all staff as well as friends and family members who came away with a huge range of prizes; from a session at Manchester’s Chill Factore, to vouchers for Jump Rush in Morecambe, bottles of champagne and more.

The final event of the challenge, affectionately named ‘Wet a Workmate’ involved staff throwing wet sponges at colleagues – a fun afternoon for all involved, especially those throwing the sponges!

Other highlights included the Great Manchester Run, the Heaton Park Half Marathon and a Wainwright’s Mountain Challenge which combined raised more than £2,500 towards the Premierline fundraising target. Various bake and food sales, team quizzes, sales on Vinted, a Eurovision sweepstake and a flower bomb sale all came together to help Premierline fly past the £500 target, raising a healthy grand total of £4,930.55.

Premierline helps with set up of new hospice charity shop

During the challenge, St. John’s Hospice had the grand opening of their brand-new charity shop which is situated on Caton Road in Lancaster.

Premierline staff are allocated 20-hours volunteer time each year which means team members are able to use normal working hours to volunteer to help a cause which is important to them. A number of the Premierline team opted to volunteer some time to assist St. John’s Hospice with the set up and launch of their new shop, accumulating almost 110 hours of volunteer time in the process.

Stuart Darroch, Managing Director at Premierline commented:

“Involvement in local community causes is so important to everyone at Premierline and that’s why we were extremely proud to have been invited by St. John’s Hospice to not only take part in their 50-50 500 challenge, but also to assist with the opening of their new shop and to visit the incredible staff and patients at the hospice site.

It’s been fantastic to see everyone at Premierline come together to support this cause and I am truly thankful for the effort that each individual has put into this challenge. I’m proud to be able to say we’ve raised over £4,500 for the local hospice and now I am sure that this is a cause we can continue to support through the Premierline volunteer hours scheme for many more years to come!”

St. John’s Hospice have thanked all the local businesses who took part in this year’s charity challenge, adding:

“We would just like to send a huge well done and an even bigger thank you for getting involved in this year’s charity challenge. Premierline have really made an impact on the services and support we can provide for our patients and their loved ones.

The entire team have really enjoyed keeping up with everything Premierline have been doing with the social media updates. We are glad to see they love cake just as much as us nurses!”