We’ve hit the ground running with our second year of supporting Gympanzees, our charity of the year for 2022 and 2023.
Gympanzees is a Bristol-based charity that want to build the UK’s first fully inclusive leisure centre. Until this goal can be made a reality, Gympanzees support children and young people with disabilities and their families through a range of services. These include their Pop Up events – smaller scale versions of what the main centre would be like, online services and a free lending library where specialist equipment can be used in familiy's own homes.
What did the team get up to last year?
Our biggest fundraising challenge in 2022 was the Three Peaks Challenge. You can read more about that here: https://www.conscious.co.uk/site/blog/csr-blog/conscious-q2-charity-update
Other events included the Pizza Run, Bryony’s Kettlebell Swing Challenge, the Bristol Business Fives Football tournament, charity raffles and more.
What are our plans for 2023?
So, what have we got up to so far this year?
Well, Digital PR Exec Eleanor Dix and I have signed up to the Bristol Half Marathon on Sunday 14 May. And let’s just say, the training has been tough, and our motivation has been at the bare minimum at times. However, as time has progressed, we’re feeling slightly more confident that, actually, “we can do this!”. Our aim will just be to complete the half marathon, rather than trying for a specific time as it will be the first half marathon, we are both running! If you want to support us and make running four times a week a little easier, we’d really appreciate it. You can find our JustGiving link here: https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/consciousbristolhalfmarathon
But that’s not all! Eight members of the Conscious team took on the Bristol Business Fives Football tournament for a second year running. Did they have any more success than previous years? Sadly, the answer is a resounding “no”. Our infamous goalie, Joe Marcovitch, was sporting a black eye after an injury the weekend before. We thought the addition of an actual footballer in Nick Bennett would lead to some success, but alas this was not the case.
All was not lost, and they did manage to ONE goal (not an own goal like last year!), Joe saved a penalty and the team raised £170 for Gympanzees, all whilst having a fun, if not slightly soggy, afternoon out!
David and Jonna spent the evening wine-tasting at Gympanzees fundraising evening, it’s a hard life, right? Of course, you could spot them a mile off, sporting their fabulous orange outfits.
Joanna said: “It was a brilliant night, sampling some tasty sparkling’s, whites, reds, and even some port, all set in this historic cellar. We even learnt how to taste from a 5th generation Avery herself! Thanks for a great evening, all for a good cause helping raise money for disabled children to have a permanent place to play, laugh, learn, and bond with their families."
On Tuesday 4 April, we will also be hosting our first ever bath bomb making evening. Be sure to check out our social media to see how well this goes. We’re prepared with all the ingredients, an instruction pack, snacks and Easter chocolate, but somehow, I still think something is going to go wrong…
It was a great suggestion from David though, and a fun way to raise some money without having to break a sweat.
We will be volunteering with Gympanzees over the course of the Easter holidays so we can see first-hand what the money we are raising goes towards. Last Easter and summer when we volunteered, we got to chat with parents and families about how vital these Pop Up sessions are to alleviate loneliness and how a permanent centre will be life-changing.
If you’d like to volunteer and support Gympanzees, please email jen@gympanzees.org.
Owen Griffiths has also signed up to run the Bath Two Tunnels Marathon in August, and we’re looking forward to cheering him on doing that.
Gympanzees and our values
One of our values at Conscious is to be generous. Conscious allows us to be generous with our time by offering two paid charity days every year to every employee! This means we can recover during the week if we take part in a challenge over the weekend or spend a weekday volunteering for Gympanzees or any other charity that we as individuals wish to be aligned with.
How you can help support Conscious and Gympanzees
Our aim is to raise £20,000 for Gympanzees by the end of 2023. We’re over halfway there! But every little helps. So if you are able to donate and support both the Conscious team and Gympanzees, you can do so via our JustGiving page.
Alternatively, if you want to find out about events coming up that you can get involved in, please email Maddie at maddie@conscious.co.uk.