The Fresh Olives apprentices from Entier have completed a competition to raise money for Scotland’s National Children’s charity, Children 1st by raising an incredible £23,000.
Team fresco raised the money as part of Dragons’ Glen, Scotland’s entrepreneurial challenge for businesses and proudly brought home second place from the awards ceremony in Edinburgh on April 20.
The dedicated team worked religiously over a period of just six months to raise this fantastic amount by selling raffle tickets to win six luxury food and drink hampers, worth £1,500. With contributions from Entier's network of suppliers, the raffle prize was a huge success and fundraising efforts continued after the raffle was drawn, including a regular ‘Car Wash’ at Entier’s office to further boost the amazing total raised. All money raised went towards their fundraising target for the children’s charity.
The team from Entier managed to turn their start-up funding of £500 into £23,000 – which will go towards supporting the work of Children 1st across Scotland. Children 1st provides practical advice and support to families in tough times and, when the worst happens, supports the survivors of abuse, neglect and other traumatic events in childhood to recover.
Peter Bruce, CEO of Entier said:
“I am incredibly proud of the efforts of the young people within our organisation. These youngsters contribute so much to our company and as a business we place a lot of emphasis on their progress and development through our Fresh Olives apprenticeship programme – a programme which has undoubtedly been integral to our achievement of gold standard Investors in Young People.
"At Entier we invest in ‘growing our own talent’ and identifying our shining stars of the future and our young people are true ambassadors for our company. I have been extremely impressed with the level of commitment they have demonstrated in this challenge and this competition has undoubtedly provided them with an ideal training ground to develop a vast range of skills.”
Dragons’ Glen is a unique opportunity for companies to engage employees and support them to develop a range of skills. 92% of participants report an improvement in communication and 95% an improvement in entrepreneurship.
Barbara Kidd, director of fundraising for Children 1st said:
“The amount raised by Dragons’ Glen is phenomenal – enough to provide six months of support for 250 children and families who need help to overcome abuse or make homes safer for children. We could not do this work without our corporate partners.”
Since its launch in 2012, Dragons’ Glen has raised over £280,000. It continues to grow in popularity and now takes part in five cities across Scotland: Aberdeen, Dundee, Edinburgh, Glasgow and Inverness.
To find out more about Dragons’ Glen, please visit www.children1st.org.uk/dragons-glen