Lubrizol puts heart and soul into breaking fundraising record
The coronavirus outbreak has not stopped staff at a Derbyshire company from running, baking and quizzing their way to raising a record-breaking sum of money for the firm’s chosen charity.
Employees at Lubrizol, in Hazelwood, near Belper, have collected a total of £ 18,396 for the British Heart Foundation (BHF) by organising and supporting a series of activities over the past two years.
In the first year of the partnership colleagues held team events including a golf day, a retro gaming event and a group of 40 pulled together to notch up an impressive 120km on a rowing machine.
Preloved items such as clothes, toys, books and DVDs were donated to the BHF which distributed them to its UK-wide network of retail outlets, bringing in a further £549.
Many of the planned fundraising activities for 2020 were moved online when the Covid-19 pandemic began and challenges such as a baking contest and a quiz were safely undertaken from home, making the sum raised even more remarkable.
Staff were able to keep fit during lockdown by tackling the MyMarathon sponsored challenge and around 300 Lubrizol colleagues collectively ran or walked more than 1,600 miles over a month.
Business manager David Boyes managed an impressive five marathons during the month – covering a distance of 147.5 miles.
The company also encouraged those not taking part in the challenge to attempt MyMindfulness and concentrate on their mental health for 26.2 hours. Activities undertaken were meditation, reading, walking and even doing a jigsaw and seven people completed the challenge notching up almost 5,000 minutes of mindfulness.
Ten staff took on an Atlantic Challenge, working alongside their colleagues in America to cover a distance of 3,646 miles, representing the distance between Hazelwood and Lubrizol’s office in Cleveland, Ohio. They notched up 17 miles a day to complete the challenge by walking, running, cycling and even playing a game of football.
The donation of £18,396 is more important than ever for the BHF, which has reported that Covid-19 has cut its ability to fund new research by half.
Paula Scaife, Derbyshire fundraising manager for the BHF, said: “Restrictions on fundraising events, the closure of our 750 charity shops and wider economic uncertainty has had a devastating impact on the British Heart Foundation.
“The coronavirus pandemic is the biggest challenge we’ve faced in our 60-year history - heart and circulatory diseases remain the world’s biggest killers and they don’t stop because there’s a global pandemic.
“Our vision is a world without these diseases. We raise money to research cures and treatments, so we can beat heartbreak forever.
“We are incredibly grateful to everyone at Lubrizol who threw themselves into fundraising, despite lockdown, and it was great to see so many people getting involved.”
The sum raised for the BHF has broken the firm’s previous fundraising total. In 2019 the company presented a cheque for £16,200 to mental health charity Derbyshire Mind.
Although the company has been committed to the British Heart Foundation for two years, Lubrizol has continued to support other local good causes.
It recently gave £500 to Treetops Hospice, in Risley, which cares for adults with life limiting conditions, and their families, living in Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire. The hospice is an independent charity and has warned that its funding has been drastically reduced by Covid-19.
Lubrizol also made a £300 donation to Sight Support Derbyshire, which provides support, advice and information to adults and children who are blind or partially sighted.
Tom Grazier, from Lubrizol's Charities and Community Committee, said: “Our staff have proven to be extremely prolific fundraisers over the past few years and they have excelled themselves once again by collecting such a remarkable total for the British Heart Foundation.
“It is a charity which many people can relate to, almost everyone knows someone who has been affected by heart disease, and I have no doubt that colleagues will continue to raise money for them, particularly when lockdown is finally over.”