Rather than get the team to run a marathon or catch cricket balls in their mouths we thought we’d ‘do our bit’ for this year’s Sport Relief by turning over the call centre to take incoming donations during the telethon on Fri 14th March.
Our wonderful callers are giving up their time and we’ve had great support from the local businesses. It should be a fun night – we’ll let you know how we get.
Last night Channel 4’s Dispatches programme highlighted the plight of many elderly people in the UK who are forced to choose between having enough to eat and being able to heat their homes – despite a Government pledge that it would make this a thing of the past.
Age Concern, one of our clients, is currently raising awareness of the 3.5 million older people that live alone and in poverty, something which should NOT be happening in a civilized society. I certainly do not relish the thought of being huddled around a one bar fire eating a cold can of beans when I’m a pensioner.
One of our clients, the International Fund for Animal Welfare, recently made the news when they helped return 4 rare gorillas to an animal sanctuary in their native Cameroon after they were smuggled into Malaysia.
The Malaysian government confiscated the animals after it was shown that they had been captured illegally and sent them to a zoo in South Africa.
After years of negotiations by the IFAW, the gorillas were returned to Cameroon on 30th Nov 2007 at a cost of over £25,000 to them. The gorillas, which are approximately 6 years old, were released to the Limbe Wildlife Centre where they will eventually join the existing gorilla population.
It’s great to be working with clients like the IFAW as it makes us feel like we are helping, in a small way, to make a difference.
We’ve just completed a campaign for The Pegasus Theatre (which went very nicely since you ask) during which Karen one of the team got through to the wife of well known author Philip Pullman who is a patron of the theatre and a major donor.
She soon realized that she shouldn’t be asking for more money so cleverly turned it into a big ‘thank you’ call!
It’s a good job it wasn’t me making the call as I’m a huge fan of His Dark Materials and I wouldn’t have let the poor woman get a word in edge ways.
During the same campaign another of the team, Jason, called one of TPR’s directors David Dixon who just happens to also be a long-time supporter of the venue. David let the guy go through the whole case for support without letting on and the next day went in and congratulated him on making a perfect call. I bet he didn’t stump any cash though!!
Over the next few days many of us will be piling our plates high with a variety of tempting morsels including an awful lot of meat. Apart from the threat to our expanding waistlines how many of us really think about where it comes from and how it’s being reared?
Compassion in World Farming have spent the last 40 years fighting against intensive farming methods and this Christmas are urging people to sign their petition to put an end to the needless suffering of billions of farm reared animals.
To see what they are up against (not for the squeamish) and to register your support CLICK HERE
There are also a couple of programmes in the Channel 4 series The Big Food Flight with Hugh Fearnly Whittingstall and Jamie Oliver Hugh looking at the issue.
PS – It will be interesting to see if Jamie O has his contract renewed by Sainsbury’s after he had a go at them for not taking part in a discussion about factory farm.
Rather than get the team to run a marathon or catch cricket balls in their mouths we thought we’d ‘do our bit’ for this year’s Sport Relief by turning over the call centre to take incoming donations during the telethon on Fri 14th March.
