What is the Staff Connection Trip?
The Virgin Unite Staff Connection Trip is a week of hands on volunteering in South Africa with our partner Pride 'n Purpose, the charitable arm of Ulusaba, Sir Richard’s private game reserve. Pride ‘n Purpose work on a non-profit basis and are committed to the upliftment of disadvantaged communities living adjacent to the reserve. They provide clean drinking water, help to tackle health issues, provide food, build crèches, orphanages and schools and support young entrepreneurs with sustainable ways to generate income.
Each year ten lucky Virgin staff are hand picked to be part of this amazing opportunity. This year the team of ten Virgin staff from across the Virgin Group have been fundraising up a storm to raise £10,000 for project ‘pimp my crèche’ where the team will transform the newly built crèche by building a playground, plant a food garden, paint wall murals and build a tree-house and that’s just for starters!! The team will also be spending a day in Johannesburg with the Branson Centre entrepreneurs.
Fundraising has included lots of incredible looking bake sales, pub crawls, royal wedding cat walk shows (we love you Wills and Kate), drinks and canapés, personal training sessions, South Africa themed breakfasts among many other fun and creative methods of reaching their target.
So who’s in the lucky team of 10?
· Philip Turnbull-Nel, Operations Manager, Virgin Active SA Bloemfontein.
· Janine Kwan, Group Finance Manager, Virgin Management Limited
· Geoff Baker, Customer Service Advisor, Virgin Trains
· Ricky Matharu, Elite Personal Trainer – Stockley Park, Virgin Active
· Toni Waters, Recruitment Manager, Assura Medical
· Nikki Robinson, Change Manager, Virgin Media
· Karen Hall, Senior Marketing Manager, Virgin Money Australia
· Bill Longstreet, Pilot, Virgin America
· Jill Fletcher, Social Media Manager, Virgin America
· Shimon Westby, Finance, Virgin Mobile Canada
Follow the group as they go on an adventure of a lifetime…
The Staff Connection team will be taking over the Virgin Unite Facebook page from 7-14 May. The team will post daily updates, pictures and videos allowing their friends, family and colleagues to keep up to date and leave messages as they transform the newly built crèche. (Note that people will need to be a fan of Virgin Unite on Facebook (search for Virgin Unite) and follow Virgin Unite on Twitter (@virginunite)).
The group will be tweeting daily using #SCT11. Make sure you start following @virginunite.