Spicerhaart aims to raise enough money to take 15 families to Disneyland through biggest ever company-wide charity event
05 September 2019
More than 200 Spicerhaart staff and their family and friends will be completing ‘a 5k Muddy Race’ on Sunday, September 15 to raise money for the company’s own charity Magic Moments.
For its biggest-ever fundraising event, Spicerhaart has exclusively hired Nuclear Races in Essex for a Tough Mudder-style race. Participants will be sponsored to take on a range of obstacles - such as climbing walls, death slides, and zip lines - over a 5k course to raise as much money as possible for Magic Moments.
Magic Moments was set up in 1998 by Alick Smith - the then Chairman of Spicerhaart - and his wife Val, and is dedicated to helping children from hospices and their families go on annual trips to Disneyland Paris.
Spicerhaart staff fundraise for Magic Moments all year round, and over the years, have raised more than £1million for the charity. As well as branch-level fundraising, the company holds three or four bigger events every year; in June, 22 colleagues raised over £20,000 by climbing the three peaks. But, with well over 200 people signed up, Muddy Races is set to be the biggest participant event ever.
Jonathan Martin, operations manager to the CEO at Spicerhaart and Chair of Magic Moments Charity, says he hopes doing a huge company-wide event will raise the profile of the charity and the important work it does.
He said: “Magic Moments is such a hugely important charity. Many of us have been lucky enough to go to Disneyland with the families to see first-hand what a positive impact the trips have on the children, their parents and their siblings.
“Staff are always keen to fundraise however they can, but recently, several colleagues had been asking if we could do something bigger, where more of us could take part in the same event.
“So, we decided to run a Muddy Race. We launched it at the Spicerhaart National Conference in March and the support we have had has been fantastic. With so many people taking part it will be more than double the size of any other fundraising event we’ve ever done for Magic Moments.”
It costs around £1,600 to send a family to Disneyland, and Jon hopes the Muddy Race event will raise enough to pay for 15 families. “I think people find it really inspirational to know where the money is going, and that £1,600 actually covers the cost of a family trip – that is a great target to work towards,” he said.
Those taking part in the race will do so in teams or individually. The individual winner of the race will take home the ‘Paul Smith Cup’ named after the Spicerhaart CEO, while the ‘John Spence Cup’ (John, an OBE is the Non-Executive Chairman) will be awarded to the best team, taking into account team time, team fundraising and team effort.
Dave Miller, account manager at Spicerhaart Corporate Sales, is taking part in a team with friends Christian and Erica Bleakley and his wife Lindsey.
Dave added: “I have never done anything like Muddy Race before, but just felt so inspired to take part in such a fantastic event.
“As a team, we have set ourselves a target of at least raising enough money to send one family to Disneyland Paris later this year, but we hope to raise as much money as possible to help make a real difference.”
If you would like to sponsor any of the people taking part in the Muddy Race, visit the team page https://www.justgiving.com/teams/MMToughMudder or find out more https://www.magicmomentscharity.co.uk/events/tough-mudder-sept-2019/
If you would like to find out more about the Magic Moments charity and the work it does, visit https://www.facebook.com/MagicMomentsCharity or https://www.magicmomentscharity.co.uk/
