Local decommissioning company, Well-Safe Solutions discuss their involvement in Charlie House’s Buy a Brick campaign and how they raised over £3,500 through their fundraising efforts. Charlie House spoke to Business Improvement Lead, Shonagh Robertson to find out more about her experience.
What motivated your business to fundraise for Charlie House’s Buy a Brick campaign?
Well-Safe Solutions has an active Social Committee, which works with local charities each year to spotlight worthy causes throughout the North-east of Scotland. As part of this year’s planning, we carried out a companywide poll and Charlie House was the favoured choice of our team for 2023. Also, my two young daughters both love the Charlie Dog cuddly toys!
The ‘Buy a Brick’ campaign will provide long-lasting support to the local area and to those who will really need it – we knew at this point that we really wanted to contribute to this goal.
What methods/tactics did you use to fundraise for Charlie House?
The centrepiece of our fundraising was the team entry for the Banchory Beast Race in September 2023. Our team of 10 were more than up for the challenge, raising over £2,000 in donations in this one event alone!
Our fundraising throughout the year was a real team effort – our office colleagues undertook shifts of cycling during office hours to raise awareness and donations, which really piqued the interest of people across the company.
Do you have any stories or experiences that helped shape your decision to raise funds for Charlie House?
As a mother to two small children myself, I think the collective experience of many people like me helped us all to understand the vital work Charlie House does for families. We are all only a ‘what if?’ away from potentially needing to call upon the support of Charlie House ourselves.
After the Charlie House team explained the lack of resources present in North-east Scotland to support those with a young person with life-limiting or a terminal condition, it became really clear to me that we need to do what we can to help improve provision locally.
Why do you think it’s important for businesses in Aberdeen and Aberdeenshire to support Charlie House?
I can only imagine how difficult it must be to deal with the upheaval in your family life when your child is facing such a complex medical situation, and adding to this burden by having to organise travel and accommodation must make it even harder. As we never know if – or when – we might need this support someday, it makes sense to me to have the best provision possible locally.
To find out more about Charlie House's Buy a Brick campaign and how you can get involved, click here: https://bigbuild.charliehouse.org.uk/buy-a-brick
