World of Hoare Lea. Us being awesome.
MENTAL HEALTH WEEK
This year, our colleagues from across the UK hosted local events to mark Mental Health Week. Here is a selection of just some of the things that we got up to…
Cake decorating in Bournemouth.
Wear it Green – Cambridge and Plymouth.
Smoothie making in Cardiff.
ULTIMATE FRISBEE NATIONAL CHAMPIONS
Lisa Hocking and Amelia Durbin from our Bristol office (as well Hoare Lea alumni Saskia Kantorowicz) won at the UK ultimate frisbee national championships, with their team Bristol Women. This has been the culmination of a huge amount of hard work and dedication, with both Amelia and Lisa leading the team as captains.
SILVER MEDAL FOR LOUISA
In Louisa Barrett’s spare time, she competes in complete high level in Cheerleading, this season she made the England Squad. She recently competed at the World Championships, held at ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex in Orlando, Florida. Incredibly, she placed Second in the World, or known as a Silver Champion/ Silver World Champion. Well done, Louisa!
LONDON MARATHON 2024
A huge well done to Sam Revie, Barry Jobling, and Ryan Elliott for running the London Marathon last weekend.
Ryan ran for Make-A-Wish UK and has currently raised £2,600.
Barry ran for Meningitis Now and has raised over £3,000.
Sam and his dad ran for Diabetes UK and has raised £5,000.
BASICALLY EURO 2024...
We recently hosted our annual Hoare lea Football Tournament, hosted by OMC. We had 10 teams entered from eight different cost centres – a truly national event.
Congratulations must go to our victorious teams. London came out as the HL Football Tournament Champions, after a thrilling final against Oxford which resulted in a golden goal to win overall! Plymouth overcame the jetlag to win in a close-fought final against Birmingham to secure the ‘Plate’.
See you all next season.
A HIKE WITH FRIENDS
Ross, Lynne, Paul and Andrew from our Glasgow office climbed Ben Lomond. This is the most southerly Munro (mountain over 3,000ft/914m), at 3,193ft/974m. It's one of the most popular hill-walks in Scotland!
BOURNEMOUTH SUMMER SOCIAL
In June, the Bournemouth and Reading office enjoyed their summer event, which featured an activity constructing prosthetic hands for children lacking the means or capability to obtain one. This exercise not only fostered team spirit but also empathy, as we were challenged to build the prosthetics using only our non-dominant hand, mirroring the daily experiences of those we aimed to help. This was followed by a BBQ and another team event designed by our own Bob Mullis.
ON YOUR BIKE!
To celebrate UK National Bike Week, our friends in Glasgow ran a few events including re-publicising our bike to work scheme, hosting a bike breakfast, a lunchtime cycle ride, and the first Hoare Lea Folding Bike World Championships... Lahmy won in 24 seconds, if you're interested. Nationwide competition next year..?
MANCHESTER MAYHEM
It's been socially busy time up in Manchester, with them hosting three fun and engaging events for both their people and clients.
First up was their annual Summer Social, where the sunshine made an appearance! Rich Monksmith got super competitive (as always) during the rounders, Jennie Daoud got serious about tug-of-war, and Gav Blakemore has learnt how to fly (must be all the time spent at the airport!)
Then came a fundraiser in May for Claire House Children’s Hospice. To raise money, they had a sweepstake guessing game, a quiz, and a bake off. Together - they raised £296.50.
And finally, they hosted their annual client summer drop in drinks. The not-so-summery weather didn’t deter their guests, and more than 50 professionals from around Manchester dropped by for a drink and catch up.
BRINGING TOGETHER BIRMINGHAM
The Birmingham office have been hosting a variety of events to celebrate important days in the calendar. This included:
Vaisakhi - organised by Kiran Virk. She provided some literature regarding Vaisakhi and Nagar Kirtan, as well as bringing in samosa’s, spring rolls, savoury snacks, and sweet treats.
Eid Al-Fitr - to mark the ending of the fasting month of Ramadan for Muslims, Zunaid Abba organised a celebration- bringing in a variety of sweet and savoury food.
Earth Week – the Sustainability hosted a lunch and design challenge, where participants were split into teams to take part in the activities.
HOUSE OF THE DRAGON BOAT RACES
Our London office headed out on to the water to compete in the Grosvenor’s 21st Dragon Boat Regatta. After some stuff competition, and anonymous source told us it’s about time Minesh hung up his oar’s after coming 20th out of 33…
The event raised approx. £52k through Grosvenor’s charity partner, Groundwork which will contribute for 6No. trainee landscapers’ employment and training for 6 months.
Bournemouth’s “Oar Lea Rowers” took part in their own Dragon Boat Race in Poole Park. The team was made up of Sean Gale, Joe Macklin, Mak Rui, Carlos SierraBautista, Dan Ellis, George Wright, Dan Newton, Lynette Dry, Matt Barnes, Niki Bagshawe, Nihal RandaraPally, Denny Shaba and Sohil VargheseSamson, with guests Holly, Jess and Andy taking part.
Our team raced for the Stable Family Home Trust, which is a charity dedicated to supporting adults with learning disabilities. They focus on giving those with learning disabilities the space to learn new skills and help them to be safe in the community.
RAMADAN
The Reading office took part in the Islamic tradition of fasting for Ramadan and shared a variety of cultural dishes at Iftar together. The month of Ramadan isn’t only about abstaining from food and water, it is also about learning self-control, as well as a reminder of those who don’t have adequate food, water & shelter. It’s great to see people of different backgrounds, cultures & religions all unite to share their interest in Ramadan and grasp a better understanding of why Muslims take part in this.
TIME TO TALK (WITH A MOUTHFUL OF CAKE)
The Scotland office raised £234.00 for SAMH in Scotland which is a Mental Health Charity. They combined this with a “Time to Talk” and some delicious home baked goods.
LEARNING THROUGH EXPERIENCE
Carl Saxon, Luke Blyth and Ian Gore took part in a charity SleepOut to raise money for LandAid, who support young homeless people. The guys slept out in Digbeth to get an understanding of what it is like to sleep rough and raise money.
BOURNEMOUTH CHARITY FUNDRAISING
Our Bournemouth office have raised £400 from February to April, as part of their monthly fundraising efforts. In February they supported Bowel Cancer UK, suggested by Dan Compton. In March they supported Diabetes UK, suggested by Matt Tighe, as well as Red Nose Day. In April they supported Marie Curie, suggested by Ian Billington.
BOURNEMOUTH CHARITY FUNDRAISING
May’s fundraising was a bit special, as they helped raise £2,193 for Alzheimer’s Society, as suggested by Lynette Dry. To raise money, Natalie Taverna, Anna Reid, Ryan Mitchel, Sean Gale, Nick Jerrard, George Wright, Jo Drane, Lynette Dry and guest Holly Powell completed the Trek26 Stonehenge - walking 26 miles around Salisbury on 11 May 2024. Hari Bose and Rebecca Standfield also walked the 13 miles route at the same time. Additionally, Lynette and her husband Chris completed a gruelling 28 mile walk as part of Trek 26 Brecon Beacon.
SPORTS IN SCOTLAND
It’s been busy in Scotland, with Calum Kerr, James Robb, Rory Muir playing at the CIBSE Golf Event at Gleneagles and Paul Winning, Paul Burrows, Andrew Nisbet, Josh Law, and Craig Scullion completing in the Scottish Triathlon Event!
The office has also hosted specific events in the office for Badminton Week too.
HELLO ALEX!
Our Scottish office truly embraced Euro fever. Whilst those at home hosted a football screening in the office with games and pizza, a few attended the Scotland game in Germany and met local hero Sir Alex Ferguson.