British Olympic swimmer Michael Jamieson, who won silver in the 200m breaststroke, is to help staff at Swindon-based newspaper and book wholesaler Smiths News celebrate a major achievement of their own.
They smashed their community fundraising target for the second year running – netting £102,359 for local and national charities as part of the firm’s Community Week initiative.
Michael, Team GB’s top performer in the pool in the London Games, has been supported by Smiths News this year. He will host an awards event next month when employees will collect accolades ranging from Community Team Event of the Year to the Outstanding Individual Contribution Award.
The firm is inviting staff to nominate colleagues for the awards. A £70,000 target had been set in January. During the Community Week itself 32 employees took part in a 375-mile bike ride from Southampton to Newcastle and a challenging 26-mile walk along part of the Ridgeway.
Group chief executive Mark Cashmore said: “Raising this amount of money is an outstanding achievement and a credit to everyone who took part in fundraising and/or sponsoring colleagues. We have been able to support more than 15 different charities this year by the sheer amount of hard work our employees have done to raise money.”
Among those taking part in the bike ride was IT support team leader Brett Hanley, who raised £1,090 for the Swindon Downs Syndrome Group, which needs £17,000 a year to fund its speech & language group.
