Direct Workforce take their fundraising for Candlelighters to new levels with a September Skydive!

Northern recruitment company, Direct Workforce, have signed up for challenge after challenge this year to raise money for Candlelighters, their Charity of the Year. We met up with the team at their office near Hunslet earlier this week to chat about what they’ve achieved. Whether it is climbing the Yorkshire Three Peaks, running a quiz night or completing a Skydive, the team is doing it all in 2016!

It all started after Leeds branch manager Lucy Woodward nominated Candlelighters as Direct Workforce’s charity to support in 2016. The company then posted public polls on their Facebook page, allowing viewers to choose which one of five charities they wished to support. Candlelighters received an astounding amount of support, and, as of January, have been the company’s Charity of the Year. Lucy has explained that she nominated us after being inspired by the story of local Middleton girl, Skye Sutcliffe, who sadly passed away in late 2015 and was supported by Candlelighters during her treatment. Lucy said: “It was such a sad story but the good that came out of it was that it opened a lot of people’s eyes and let us see the amazing work that Candlelighters do.”

Since January, the 28-member team has immersed themselves in a range of work events. Faye Grist, Direct Workforce’s Marketing Manager, explained about what they’d achieved: “In late May, we completed the Yorkshire Peaks walk. I managed to do it in 11 and a half hours and it was one of the hardest things I’ve ever done. Just over a week later, a few of us walked Hadrian’s Wall, which was another sponsored event that allowed us to raise even more funds for Candlelighters.”

But the work didn’t stop there. Even the Managing Director got involved, undertaking an eight week boxing challenge in which she trained every week in the lead up to her first ever match. Direct Workforce, who have offices in Leeds, Manchester and Scunthorpe, also raised money through ‘Dress Down’ days in the office, a Eurovision sweepstake and, just last week, a pub quiz night. Candlelighters Corporate Fundraiser, Brian Curran, went along to last week’s event and, alongside being lucky enough to win one of the quiz prizes (a Sopranos box set!), he was astounded by the work of the company: “This is a great example of corporate support. Direct Workforce have participated in our events as well as organising their own. We want to recruit more corporate supporters like Direct Workforce to help us raise even more money.”

Coming up next for the Direct Workforce team, who are part of the Bibby Line Group (BLG), is a Candlelighters-organised Skydive. Brave team members, Melissa Butcher and Zoe Mitchell, will be tackling this in September and, if you would like to sponsor them, please visit their JustGiving page at https://www.sponsorme.co.uk/melissabutcher/candlelighters-ccam-skydive.aspx for Melissa, and at https://www.sponsorme.co.uk/zoemitchell/candlelighters-ccam-skydive.aspx for Zoe.