FirstGroup employees participated in Boycott your Bed with UK Charity Partner Action for Children on 21 August 2020, raising just under £5,000 for vulnerable children and families across the UK.
For the past 22 years, Action for Children has organised Byte Night: the UK’s longest running corporate sleep out event, which encourages individuals to sleep rough for a night to acknowledge the vast number of young people sleeping rough in the UK and raise money for the charity.
Due to the coronavirus pandemic, the event took on a new format, with participants nationwide being asked to boycott their beds and spend the night somewhere unusual.
In each part of the business, employees pitched tents, slept in empty bathtubs, weathered storms in greenhouses and even camped out in former buses.
Overall, the event raised more than £260,000 for Action for Children.
Kate Broome, FirstGroup’s Director of Corporate Responsibility, said:
“I’m proud to support Boycott your Bed for Action for Children, sleeping in my living room under a pillow fort with my young kids. It’s great to see our Charity of Choice Partner finding ways to get people involved in fundraising from the comfort of home – though it may not have been too comfortable on the night!”
Christy Baker, FirstGroup’s Group Legal Director, commented:
“Getting involved is such a simple and fun way to raise much-needed funds for an amazing charity which helps kids and young people across the country who really need that support, especially now when coronavirus is having a massive impact on the most vulnerable members of our society.”
Earlier this year, FirstGroup’s charity partnership with Action for Children won in the automotive and transport category of the Business Charity Awards.
After only two years, the partnership has hit an incredible value of £2.2 million in employee fundraising, corporate donations and the commercial value of gifts in kind, making it FirstGroup’s most successful partnership to date in terms of value.