Whilst discussing ideas for Gibe at Codegarden conference in Denmark, Cat and I came to the realisation that we both wanted to do more to give back to society in some way or form.
As we talked this through we wondered if we are both feeling this way, is anyone else at Gibe feeling the same? After discussing it with Gibe the idea rippled through the team (particularly as we were becoming BCorp) so we started exploring the idea of charity work, outreach or volunteering. The only hurdle was, from Edinburgh to Kent, we have members of Gibe who now live in various parts of the UK. So how do we create an idea that everyone feels connected to and a part of?
Cat and I had various meetings with different agencies and charities to see what options would suit us and found a solution. We decided that we would use the whole of July to hold a fundraising event across the whole company. We challenged the team to move 1000km and aim to raise £1000 for local charity: Bristol Animal Rescue Centre.
The idea being that no matter where you lived or how you choose to move, as long as you are willing to get involved there was a place for you. We really wanted it to be as welcoming and inviting as possible. We set up a Strava club and connected it to a Slack channel so we could all see each other's efforts, cheer each other on and really work together to achieve our targets. When we told Bristol ARC they were thrilled and agreed to share our journey on their social media platforms to support us too.
The team took to the challenge with great gusto! We set up a spreadsheet to log and calculate the overall distance, a JustGiving page to share our story and we kept the social media platforms up to date with our progress.
We had such a wonderful range of activities walking, jogging, running, swimming, golfing, rowing and cycling. Where possible we encouraged people to take photos so we could share with all those who had donated and create a story online. Come rain or shine (and there was been plenty of both!) the team got out and pushed themselves for the finish line. From those recovering from injury to those aiming for personal bests there was such a positive attitude throughout the company. Even some pets got involved too!
The Strava and Slack channels were alive with notifications and meetings were peppered with tales of individual attempts and achievements. It genuinely became difficult to keep the collective kilometre spreadsheet up to date and at the same time the donations and messages of support kept coming through!
Encouraged by this constant support the team kept moving and I’m delighted to say that we ended up achieving the distance of 1,415.61km and have raised £1,090!!
We have been completely overwhelmed by this, especially as we are very aware that we are in a time where there are financial constraints for so many. Any contribution we saw was a real surprise and delight to see. After sharing our results with Bristol ARC they have been blown away and have sent us a certificate of gratitude for us to display proudly in our office. Plus it's been so great to realise that even though we are working remotely we can still feel like we are working together as a team.
We have been truly inspired to do more to help others with our time in a range of ways. We’re exploring new ideas and can’t wait to share what we do next so watch this space!
