Our company of the month for December – the final company of the month of 2020 is… CDS!

CDS first began supporting Candlelighters at the beginning of 2020 after choosing Candlelighters as their next charity of the year. The CDS team began the year with big plans and high hopes of raising £5,000 for Candlelighters. They started with an inventive “Smarties Challenge”, asking colleagues to fill a Smarties tube with coins, which raised £465! Next, the team took on some Easter fundraising challenges to boost their total to almost £1,000.

In March, the COVID-19 pandemic brought many challenges for the CDS team’s fundraising aspirations, with colleagues having to work from home and work demands changing. However, CDS remained determined to continue raising funds for Candlelighters and their first big challenge started with John Waters when he climbed 3064m – the equivalent height of the National Three Peaks! – up and down his stairs at home! John, with the support of CDS, raised over £2,000 for this challenge and it really got the ball rolling for CDS lockdown fundraising!

Since then, CDS have moved to a new office location at Riverside House in Leeds City Centre. Fantastically, they took this move as an opportunity to further boost their fundraising and donated all the money raised through selling their old office furniture.

For their final fundraising endeavour of the year, the men of the team stepped up and took part in a “Movember” challenge and received sponsorship for growing their moustaches throughout November. This raised an impressive £1,300 including gift aid!

CDS’s final total for the year was £5,783!

Gina from Candlelighters said “Candlelighters are so grateful for all the support CDS have offered throughout 2020. It has been such a difficult year and we are delighted that CDS have been able to surpass their £5,000 fundraising target. This amount will make such a big difference to the children and families who are supported by Candlelighters, thank you to everyone at CDS!”