2022 was another year of giving back

Please note: This post was written by Highlander prior to their rebrand to FluidOne Business IT - Sheffield.

Charity is a big part of our ethos at Highlander. Big or small, old or new, we always make it a priority to give back to our local community in whatever way we can. As part of that, we get stuck in with a range of charitable causes, both local and national, to pitch in and help others out.

As 2022 draws to a close, we wanted to run through a selection of the work we’ve been doing over the last year to support a range of good causes – everything from collecting donations at the coffee machine, to welcoming our team’s dogs into the office, and even supporting one of our own spending a night sleeping out to raise money for a homeless charity.

This October, we were proud to have been involved with Cavendish Cancer Care’s Corporate Curling Competition – and not just because we’re fans of alliteration! We’ve sponsored the last two of these events (entering our own Highlander team in both) and were delighted to be able to support Cavendish’s work in helping cancer patients of all ages, with everything from emotional and physical support to professional treatment from qualified therapists.

The Corporate Curling Competition is also a mainstay of the local business community, so we were glad for the opportunity to collaborate with organisations in the area and compete for a good cause, even if we didn’t come away with any trophies.

Cavendish Cancer Care were also one of the many charities we supported through our coffee machine donations. These donations are an integral part of everyday life at Highlander – our offices have a high-end coffee machine, which our staff are welcome to use, so long as they make a small contribution. But instead of these funds helping to top up our coffee supplies, we pay for the coffee as a business, and spread the contributions our team make between a number of our charity partners. It’s just a small part of how deeply engrained charity is into our workplace culture, and it’s a real win-win for our team. They get to make a valuable contribution to important causes, and enjoy a nice cup of coffee to help them through the day. As well as Cavendish, the continued support and goodwill of our team has helped us raise donations for a number of deserving local charities:

• Bluebell Wood Children’s Hospice, who offer care and support to children and young people with critical health conditions.
• Weston Park Cancer Charity, which helps patients in South Yorkshire, North Nottinghamshire, and North Derbyshire receive specialist cancer treatment.
• Support Dogs, a national charity which trains and provides assistance dogs to help people with a range of medical conditions remain independent.
• The Archer Project, a local charity devoted to helping homeless and vulnerable people change their lives for the better by providing valuable assistance and support.

Alongside donations from our coffee fund, we also supported the Archer Project through their Sleep Out event earlier this year, with Highlander’s Rich Davies participating in the event. Needless to say, the entire team got on board with sponsoring Rich who spent the evening sleeping out on street. While the event’s participants had the good fortune to sleep out on a warm summer night, spare a thought for the people forced to sleep rough this winter, with temperatures dropping well below zero.

No child should go without a gift on Christmas Day, and in the build-up to the festive season we’ve been showing our support for the Cash for Kids’ Mission Christmas campaign. With the cost of living crisis still plaguing families across the country, Cash for Kids has stepped up to help make sure that as many children as possible have presents to open on Christmas Day. To that end, we’ve been hard at work finding and donating gifts to be handed out as part of the campaign – and setting our office up as a dedicated drop-off point for gift donations. In fact, last week, Rich had the pleasure of hand-delivering the presents we’d collected to Cash for Kids’ Mission HQ.

We’ve also been a proud sponsor of Support Dogs’ Santa Paws walk, and opened our offices up for a Dogs and Donuts Day where we welcomed the canine companions of the Highlander team for the day. While it definitely led to some office chaos, it was great to be able to support such a great cause.

Throughout the year, we’ve also supported a number of golf days in aid of brilliant local charities. This included Weston Park Cancer Charity, The Archer Project, and Paces, who work to support people and families with Cerebral Palsy and motor disorders. Paces are based in Sheffield, but do great work around the UK, offering education to help both children and adults learn life-changing skills. So long as it’s for a good cause, we’re always happy to head out for a swift 18 holes!

We feel both fortunate and proud to have been able to support the amazing organisations highlighted above, but it’s worth noting that our people are always doing their part to support great causes. We’ve already settled on our resolutions for 2023, and one of the big ones is simple – keep doing what we can to support our community.

In the meantime, we’ll be enjoying some time off over Christmas to reconnect with friends and family – and come up with some great ideas to help local charities over the next 12 months!