2017 Giving Something Back Awards – Winners Announced

The 10th Giving Something Back (GSB) Awards Lunch took place on Friday 1st December 2017 to celebrate the amazing charitable achievements of our employees.

Over 50 employees from around Bibby Line Group attended a day of celebrations, nominated by their fellow colleagues or the GSB team to be recognised and rewarded for their charitable activities over the past year or more, whether that be through volunteering or fundraising, in or outside of work.

With the support of Bibby Line Group employees raised over £310,000 for 125 charities across the world, bringing our overall total donated over 10 years to £9.7million.

Full list of Winners and Highly Commended:

Top Volunteer

Overall winner – Michael Lavery, Costcutter Supermarkets Group (centre)

A scout leader for 25 years, Michael has given up many of his evenings and weekends to support young people. In addition he is also heavily involved in the local GAA football club, helping with training and improvement of the facilities in his role as a Development Officer.

1^st Highly Commended – Steven Turk, Bibby Distribution (right)

Steven has volunteered his time to a local community football club over many years. Steven supports the staff, coaches, parents and players whilst still holding down a full time job and having his own family to care for.

 2^nd Highly Commended – Clare Hunter, Bibby Offshore (left)

Clare took part in the Cambodia Trek this year and is also passionate about promoting a healthy work environment for their colleagues and is part of the ‘healthy lives group’ at work.

Top Fundraiser

Overall winner – Michaela Wright, Bibby Distribution (centre)

Michaela is in her 10^th year of helping communities in Africa and was a member of the very first Central Event team. Her dedication to her chosen charity and the community is inspirational. Michaela has raised in excess of £45k in all of the events she has taken part in over the past 10 years.

1^st Highly Commended – Robin Dearden, Bibby Distribution (right)

Robin has really challenged himself taking on physical challenges that most people wouldn’t entertain: swimming a 1,000m sea swim, 60km cycle and a 10km run all in well under four hours, raising over £1,000 for Prostate Cancer.

 2^nd Highly Commended – Shak Mistry, Bibby Financial Services (left)

Shak took part in the Cambodia Trek this year, selling gallons of curry to her colleagues in Leicester, blowing the required fundraising target out of the water, raising an amazing £2,550 for her chosen charity.

Top Innovation

Overall winner – Dominic Fuller-Lowe, Bibby Financial Services (left)

Dominic has organised and co-ordinated a team event where over £7,000 was raised for a much needed bus teaching a whole team to ball room dance in a mere 5 weeks, organising venues, outfits, hair dressers, make-up artists, flowers, awards and judges.

1^st Highly Commended – Ray Brown, Bibby Distribution (right)

Ray’s new idea for 2017 was to give up sweets, bread and alcohol for two months to raise funds. Ray has run a succession of innovative competitions including sweep stakes and fantasy football at the Duke Street office to raise money for the Teams 4 U Charity.

2^nd Highly Commended – Jakob Novak, Bibby Financial Services International (not pictured)

Jakob formed a BFS team to enter the Spartan Race in Brno to raise money for autistic children in their community. In August the whole team completed the Spartan Race successfully as well as a charity auction of pictures created by the autistic children raised further funds.

Top Team

Overall winner – Bibby Bike Ride, Bibby Financial Services (above)

For 64 hours, at an average speed of 21.5 km/h, this team rode a total of 861 miles between the 19 UK Bibby Finanacial Services offices, resulting in 130 very sore legs, raising an amazing £9,000 for charity.

1^st Highly Commended – Team Cambodia, Central Events

The team raised a massive £34,000 for charity, facing extremely tough terrain, torrential rain, and stagnant water up to their thighs; deet burns, bites, stings, rashes, blisters, muscle strains and digestive difficulties!

2^nd Highly Commended – Cabin Fever, Garic

Colleagues thoroughly enjoyed watching the 7 strong team tackle a very wet and muddy 5k obstacle course on a very rainy day, raising £700 for the Bury hospice.

Most Outstanding Achievement

Melanie Fraser – Bibby Financial Services

After kicking cancers butt, Melanie turned her energy to fund raising for Macmillan Cancer Support and organized a fantastic silent auction at her office to coincide with the World’s Biggest Coffee Morning on 29^th September 2017. She contacted local businesses for auction items and experiences, gathered in the goodies, tirelessly promoted the event in the office, made sure Macmillan were in the loop, coordinated the auction on the day, helped us part with our spare cash with her trolley of treats and raised over £1,000 for Macmillan, all whilst being a super fantastic receptionist, Mum and partner – all within 12 months of her initial diagnosis.