Showing posts with label Staff Stories. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Staff Stories. Show all posts

Tuesday, 25 May 2010

Glamorgan team at RedR Disaster Relief Challenge

Staff from Capita Symonds’ Glamorgan office took part in the RedR Disaster Relief Challenge at Cuffley Camp Outdoor Centre in Hertfordshire recently.

The original concept of RedR was to create a register of carefully selected and trained engineers who could be called on at short notice to work with front-line relief agencies, either on secondment from their regular employer or as a full time aid relief worker. The charity, which started in the UK, has evolved into an international federation of RedRs that provide a host of specialist training and recruitment services for all the major aid agencies.

Pic: L-R Rhys Hellin, Kirsty Llewellyn, Steven Rusby and Matthew English.

The Disaster Relief Challenge is a unique and exciting 12 hour event where volunteers encounter some of the extreme situations faced by aid workers in the field. Money raised by the event is used to train, recruit and support relief workers in the UK and around the world, improving the quality and coordination of humanitarian responses to natural disaster and conflict.

The team of four - Steven Rusby, Kirsty Llewellyn, Matthew English and Rhys Hellin - experienced an exciting but challenging 12 hour event taking part in tests such as Orienteering, Emergency Scenarios, Obstacle Courses, Problem Solving and Time Trails.

The team, which came first in the Emergency Scenarios and Relay Assault Course sections, finished third out of 13 teams overall. Most importantly, the team successfully raised a grand total of £2000 towards the RedR Disaster Relief Challenge Fund.

Friday, 21 May 2010

Capita Symonds triumphs at annual Capita Challenge event











Capita Symonds yet again led the field at this year’s Capita Challenge, which took place at Catton Hall, Derbyshire on 08 May.

19 Capita Symonds teams were among 85 teams from across Capita Group Plc, business partners and clients that took part in a range of sponsored physical and mental challenges.

Capita Symonds’ ‘Sticky Bitty II’ (Tom Davies, James Daplyn, Richard Peers, Matt Price) came top of the heap – holding off the challenge of ‘NOW and the Temple of Plumstead’ (Damian Lineham, Michael Brand, John Kinnear, Simon Chittenden) in 3rd and ‘Sticky Bitty’ (Stephen Charters, Jonathan Goring, Russell Nunn, Stuart Ramsay) in 4th.

A fantastic £63,000 was raised by the Capita Challenge for Macmillan Cancer Support, which will go towards the £1 million Capita has pledged to raise during its three year partnership with the charity.

Monday, 22 March 2010

Catherine volunteers on Osprey project

Catherine Soper from our East Grinstead office will be volunteering for two weeks with the RSPB at its Osprey Project in North Wales.

The project involves working at the RSPB Visitor’s Centre in the Glaslyn Valley in Snowdonia, home to the only pair of Ospreys in Wales. The work will involve surveillance of the pair to prevent poaching of their eggs and to engage the public with the project, which aims to establish an Osprey population in Wales.

The Centre’s surveillance hide provides a unique view of the Ospreys' nest and enables visitors to gain a valuable insight into these magnificent birds as well as the workings of Europe's largest conservation charity.

To sponsor Catherine’s RSPB project please go to http://www.justgiving.com/catherinesoper

Thursday, 18 March 2010

Jonathan Goring is done and dusty at Cannes


Mayor of London Boris Johnson turned out to greet riders at the finish of the six day 1500km Cycle to Cannes charity challenge.

Jonathan Goring completed the race, raising money for the Over the Wall charity…

“We finally made it to Cannes, after 56 hours of cycling, 40,000 calories, 1500 km and 50 pee stops. An epic trip through beautiful countryside with a total of 12000m of painful ascents and some hair raising descents.

The arrival was spectacular as the whole Peleton rolled into town flanked by motorcycle out riders before being met by Boris Johnson.

We cycled down with some of the UK’s top clients and John Rudge and I enjoyed our first beer in Savilles tent!”

Make a donation to Jonathan's chosen charity - Over the Wall

Jonathan

Tuesday, 16 March 2010

Jonathan Goring’s final day on the road to Cannes

Jonathan Goring is taking part in the Cycle to Cannes charity challenge, an annual six day 1500km cycling endurance event…

Eat, cycle, eat, cycle, sleep. . . That's all I've been doing for the past week.

1500km in five days, finishing today. Definitely one of the hardest things I have ever done. We started with 90 cyclists all eager to push themselves to the limit and raise over 150k for charity. About ten crazy people will do the whole thing!!!

The scenery; mountains, vineyards and countryside, has been sensational. The weather has been awesome.

Thank you everyone who has supported my charity, over The Wall. Please check out my web site . . . And remember its not too late to donate.

Regards from Aix en Provence and I'll blog from Cannes.


Thanks

Jonathan


Links:

Friday, 12 March 2010

Jonathan Goring’s first day on the road to Cannes

Jonathan Goring is taking part in the Cycle to Cannes charity challenge, an annual six day 1500km cycling endurance event - “…probably the closest an amateur cyclist will get to feeling like a "pro" having full support, rolling road closures and covering up to 300km a day.”

Here’s the latest from his trip…
“Well I survived the first day, relatively unscathed. Legs . . Check . . Bottom . . Check. Short trip 100k. . . Check . . Sleep . . . Oops. It's 4 am uk time and we are off again in an hour. Calais to Dijon, 300k. . . . I hope.”

Jonathan is raising money for Over the Wall, a charity which provides respite care for sick children and their families. Make a donation

Monday, 22 February 2010

Jonathan Goring Cycles to Cannes

Dear All

I am taking part in the Cycle to Cannes charity challenge which is an annual 6-day 1500km cycling endurance event. It is probably the closest an amateur cyclist will get to feeling like a "pro" having full support, rolling road closures and covering up to 300km a day….

My chosen charity is Over the Wall, a small but incredibly deep reaching charity which provides respite care for sick kids and their families. OTW allows sick kids or their brothers and sisters to take a well earned break from the routine of hospitals and home visits which often rules their lives; it provides a wild time for kids to be kids in one of OTW's summer camps. Last year 600 kids and families benefited and OTW's plan is to increase this year on year and make a lasting impact on the lives of the 17,000 children with serious illness in the UK.





Find out more about Over the Wall on their website

Visit my charity web page to make a donation

Find out more about Cycle2Cannes

My aim is to raise at least £3,000 so your support would be greatly appreciated.

With best wishes.

Jonathan
____________________________________

We'll hopefully be keeping you up to date with Jonathan's progress via our blog. Watch this space.

Wear Red for RedR

The Cwmbran office raised £185 at this year’s Wear Red for RedR Day.

The original concept of RedR was to create a register of carefully selected and trained engineers who could be called on at short notice to work with front-line relief agencies, either on secondment from their regular employer or as a full time aid relief worker.

The charity, which started in the UK, has evolved into an international federation of RedRs that provide a host of specialist training and recruitment services for all the major aid agencies.

For further information about Capita Symonds' involvement with RedR contact David Price

Friday, 19 February 2010

Sponsored walk for Haiti

Carwyn Davies from our Glamorgan office recently took park in a sponsored walk to raise money for Haiti.

Carwyn was part of a group of intrepid walkers who climbed Penyfan, Cribyn, Corn De and Fan y Big in the Brecon Beacons.

The climb, which took four gruelling hours in extremely foggy and cold conditions, raised over £1000 (including a £300 contribution from Capita Symonds).


Friday, 8 January 2010

Bristol office annual charity golf event

Capita Symonds Bristol’s recent annual golf event raised over £5,300 for charity. Held at the Kendleshire Golf Club, the event featured over 100 participants from across local businesses.
Two worthy charities benefited from the event - £1,340 was donated to the Portishead Junior Football Club to help them with their work with local youngsters, while £4,020 was given to The Meningitis Research Foundation which funds research to prevent meningitis and septicaemia, improve survival rates and outcomes, promote education and awareness to reduce death and disability, and give support to people affected by the disease.
The cheques were presented by John Wormald, Regional Director for Capita Symonds, to John Shaddick, Chairman of Portishead Junior Football Club, who was accompanied by a number of the club’s players. Emily Waller represented the Meningitis Research Foundation.

Capita Symonds has played a key role on a number of major projects in the area in recent years, including Merchants’ Academy, Cabot Circus, Oasis Academy Bristol, SS Great Britain and Bristol University.


Left to right back row – Helene Bailey, Teresa Osgood, Emily Waller (Meningitis Research Foundation), John Wormald, John Shaddick (Portishead Junior Football Club)

Left to right front row- Jared Ford, Mattie Twiggs, Luke Osgood, Alex Twiggs, Harry Ford

Monday, 4 January 2010

Tuk-Tuk Tales



Jamie Muir Wood from Capita Symonds’ Procter Street office is currently piloting an autorickshaw - ‘The Gin Express’ - from Pokhara in Nepal to Kochi in Kerala, Southern India (via the Taj Mahal) to raise money for charity.

The rickshaw is painted in the colours of a World War II spitfire (with lemon and lime influence) and the team (Jamie plus two of his friends) are donning flying hats, goggles and jackets (at least whilst in the frozen north).

They have already raised £1,000 for the adventure's nominated charities - Mercy Corps (India) and Maiti Nepal, a Nepalese charity which helps repatriate women trafficked to India

The team are also raising funds for the NACC (The National Association for Colitis and Crohn's Disease) whose work has enabled Jamie to participate...

To make a donation go to http://www.justgiving.com/extragin

Depending on the team’s access to technology during the trip, you may be able to follow their progress at http://rickshawrun10w.theadventurists.com/theginexpress

Thursday, 17 December 2009

Marathon Man

Adrian Jones from Capita Architecture’s Cardiff studio beat over 50 runners to win the Brentwood Multilap Marathon recently in a remarkable time of 2.55.16

Not only that, he also won a similar race in the Gower, South Wales.

Both races were off-road and much slower than straight road marathons, involving in varied grade and terrain – from slippery mud slopes to sandy dunes to steps and rocky cliff paths (not to mention jumping over stiles).

View Adrian's report on the Gower race

Well done Adrian!


Wednesday, 4 November 2009

Halloween Record Breaker

Mark Hankin from Capita Symonds’ Barrow office attempted to set the world record for the most tarot readings on Halloween. Mark read for 75 people over the 12 hours, raising over £650 for charity.



He says: “We had a great day and there was a real energy and buzz about the place. The midnight reading was done by electric candle and went very well. After the reading we turned off the candles and had quite a ghostly experience, hearing low breaths and Lisa, the girl who won the midnight reading, felt the breath on her face. She also felt ‘someone’ touch her shoulder three times, we both heard footsteps and I had the sleeve of my shirt pulled. To top it off, I saw two orbs (which some say is light reflecting off dust particles, but when there is no light, how can that be?).

I am in the process of collecting all the evidence for the Guinness Book of World Records and will be sending that off soon. I’m already planning a similar event for the Summer Solstice - I may make that a 24 hour reading marathon.”

Wednesday, 14 October 2009

My digital world


Kate Nelson, Principal Sustainability Consultant, Talks about her Digital World.

The original article appears on Building Sustainability Design's website

What is your favourite website?
I am hooked on www.etsy.com – its mission is to reconnect makers with buyers and it has a fantastic shop local function which hooks me into all the UK based designers and artists. As someone who works in responsible procurement, I love the idea of buying one-off, handmade items instead of mass produced goods.

What is your favourite gadget?
It isn’t really a gadget but last year I became a mac user and it was love at first drag and drop.

What’s the most useful website you access for your work?
I recently worked out that the best way to get the latest information was to stop subscribing to email newsletters and follow your favourites on twitter instead. It keeps your inbox clear and you can pick and choose what to follow up on. At the moment I am following Ethical Corporation, Building and the UN Climate Change 09 tweeters.

What was the last track you downloaded?
I am all about spotify.com at the moment where you can listen to most albums for free (legally!) but the last download was Useful Chamber by Dirty Projectors.

What was the subject of the last email you received?
Skittles! We are currently building an intranet for our sustainable design lab which will link our designers, architects, engineers, planners and project mangers together in sharing best practice and developing new tools for our projects. We have been inspired by the skittles website which plugs into twitter, flickr and youtube to generate content which means it is by the people for the people.

Social networking or face-to-face?
Hard to say, I am a fair weather friend of facebook but I can see its potential. At this stage I must say a conversation over a pint of ale is my preference.

Who is your favourite blogger?
My favourite blogger at the moment would have to be my friend Charlotte who is on gastro boot camp at the moment in Ireland - http://chopchop-charlotte.blogspot.com
Charlotte works for Sustain and she has helped me be a more ethical eater particularly when it comes to fish.

What’s been the best link you’ve ever been sent?
www.walkit.com – we are based on Victoria and I find I can walk to all my meetings instead of spending time cooped up in taxis and tubes.

What was the last thing you bought online?
A fruit and veg box from Abel and Cole

What was the funniest piece of spam you ever received?
Spammers have become so lazy so I haven’t had a good piece in ages, but I did hear a funny story about spam which involved a major tunnelling project and a filter which automatically deleted emails which included the word 'shaft'.

Thursday, 24 September 2009

Starchitects


Congratulations to Nicola James, Richard Woods, Lee Griffiths, Kevin Jones, Matthew Richards and Adrian Jones from Capita Architecture’s Cardiff studio who came sixth in the team competition at this year’s Cardiff 10K.

The team donated £250 to Kidney Wales in the process via Katherine Jenkins' appeal: http://www.justgiving.com/katherinejenkins

Wednesday, 23 September 2009

Southampton staff help with Holy Family school improvements

Staff from Capita Symonds’ Southampton office and Southampton City Council gave up a precious Saturday recently to improve the indoor environment for children at Holy Family School in Millbrook, Southampton.

The project – part of the Business in the Community (BITC) Programme – saw the team tackling a variety of different challenges including redecorating a number of classrooms.

Tony Head, Deputy Headmaster said: “We are enormously grateful for the effort of all those involved. Collaboration such as this between business and schools allows us all to ensure that our children are given the very best learning environment that we can. It’s fantastic to work with other organisations that are as committed to making a difference as we are.”

Pat Smith, BITC Hampshire Area Manager said: “We are absolutely delighted to be working with Capita Symonds and Holy Family. Employee volunteering is one of the most important and effective ways that companies can increase their positive impact in the community and leverage a key resource beyond cash.”

Although it resides in one of the most deprived areas of Southampton, the Holy Family Primary School has risen from 30th to 5th in the school league tables in just three years.



Well done and many thanks to everybody involved.

Thursday, 6 August 2009

Capita Symonds to Compete in Intelligent Sport World Series Final


Capita Symonds will be the sole representative for the UK construction industry at the Intelligent Sport World Series Final in Portugal.

The Intelligent Sport World Series comprises 12 annual corporate challenge events on six continents – including the Microsoft Challenge. These events culminate in the World Series Final in December where the top teams from each event will go head-to-head in the ultimate showcase of team performance. The event will take place in Geopark Naturtejo da Meseta Meridional in central Portugal.

Two teams from Capita Symonds recently took place in the Microsoft Challenge in the Cambrian Mountains in Mid Wales. They did well achieving 21st and 27th place, but narrowly missed out on a place in the final. Of course they were disappointed, but a sigh of relief went out across the team at the thought of no more training.

However their luck changed (for the better or worse?) when they received a phone call explaining that there was now a place available and would they like to take part!

So now we’re back in the game!
We’ve decided to create a Capita Symonds ‘super-team’, by picking the five strongest members of both Capita Symonds’ original teams. The squad will be training hard in the run up to the event and will be entering a number of adventure races and other physical events, to up their fitness and build on the lessons learnt in Wales.

Only 30 teams from across the world have been invited, and made up from the qualifiers from the USA, South Africa, Europe and the Far East. We will be competing against organisations such as Airbus and the US Air Force.

Good luck!

Find out more about the Intelligent Sport World Series at http://is.challengerworldresults.com/

Monday, 13 July 2009

Pryke on his bike


Andrew Pryke, Capita Architecture’s Design Director, and Capita Symonds’ Andrew Wheldon completed the King Sturge Property Triathlon at Dorney Lake, Eaton, recently.

The Property Triathlon is now in its third year and has already firmly established itself as one of the top five UK triathlons by size. Co-sponsored by Property Week, the event to date has raised over £500,000 for charity and has seen more than 3,500 people take part.

This year’s event included a 750m open water swim, 12 mile bike ride and three mile run. Andrew chalked up a time of 1 hr 15min 3 sec, putting him in eight place out of over 100 in the 45-49 year old category, 16th out of approximately 220 in the 40-49 category, and 97th out of 1155 overall.

Andrew Wheldon notched up a highly respectable time of 1 hour 30 min 15 sec.
Well done to both Andrews!

Tuesday, 7 July 2009

Carlisle Staff Give a Helping Hand

A team of volunteers from our Carlisle office recently renovated a local garden for a charity in Harker. Ten members of Capita Symonds staff took part in the project over two half days at Heathlands Farm, part of the Glenmore Trust.

The site is run by Glenmore Opportunities, a Social Enterprise that provides support and development for adults with disabilities.The users at the centre outlined what they wanted in the garden, which was designed by landscape architect David Richards, including plants to attract butterflies, something to deter rabbits, and a gnome.

After weeding, the volunteers completed the garden with a tidy up of the overgrown site, and adding new plants. Plans for the future of the Glenmore site include a tea room, farm shop and nature trails.

David Richards said: “All of the volunteers are really happy with how the garden has turned out. We put in a lot of hard work and we are delighted that the day centre users at Glenmore have a nice front garden they can enjoy throughout the year.”

The garden renovation is part of the Carlisle office’s ongoing Community Engagement plan which it is hoped will take on larger projects in the future.


Before

The volunteers
The finished article

Thank you to all the volunteers!

Tuesday, 30 June 2009

Urban Vision Staff lend a helping hand to St Anne's Hospice

Eight members of our Urban Vision team in Salford took part in a gardening project at St Ann’s Hospice recently.

The hospice – Urban Vision’s chosen charity for 2009 – is the largest hospice in Greater Manchester and provides specialist care for people who have progressive and life-threatening illnesses – as well as support for their carers and families.

With summer approaching, the aim of the day was to dramatically improve the gardens and outdoor break areas for the patients and their families. A couple of hours of mowing, digging and planting transformed the hospice’s surroundings, much to the delight of Andy, the hospice’s caretaker!

The volunteers insisted that they’ll be back again next year with their gardening gloves and spades in tow.

Back row: Paul Clayden, Cathy Mitchell, Toni Bullen, Stephen Lawton.
Front row: Amanda Cordina, Hayley Watson.

Links: