Earlier on in the year, you have may have seen us announce our 2022 charity of the year. Following an internal vote, Prettys staff opted for Suffolk and Norfolk charity, Fresh Start New Beginnings, to be our Charity of the Year.
Fresh Start New Beginnings provides therapeutic services across Suffolk and Norfolk for children and teenagers under 18 who have reported being sexually abused. Providing appropriate and effective support to each young person costs around £2,500, and the charity is therefore very keen to enlist the support of as many local businesses as possible. Prettys is proud to support Fresh Start New Beginnings in its important work and raise as many funds as possible.
Further information about Fresh Start New Beginnings can be found here: https://www.fsnb.org.uk/
Dragon Boat Race 2022
This year, we have run a number of events to raise funds for Fresh Start New Beginnings and a highlight was most certainly the Dragon Boat Race held on Saturday 11 June 2022. Taking place at the Waterfront in Ipswich, the Prettys team competed against a number of local companies and organisations for the crown, all in the spirit of fundraising for Fresh Start New Beginnings. The Prettys team consisted of our drummer, Grace Ambrose and our 10 paddlers, Dan Billson, Louise Plant, Aimee Riley, Jamie Mattocks, Laura Parker, Liam Hendry, Marisa Murray, Myriam Naoual, Ellie Claffey, Siân Llewelyn and Maria Spencer.
Having donned Hawaiian hula skirts and flower lanyards, the team surprised themselves in the first heat by pulling away very quickly and finishing in first position! Whilst after a number of different heats the Prettys team did not make the final, we came a very proud 8th out of 22 teams. A great day was had by all and spirits were even higher when we calculated that after a month of fundraising on social media, sponsorships from friends and family and a bake sale within the office, the team had raised an impressive £1,055.50 for Fresh Start New Beginnings!
Prettys’ Great British Bake Off
As part of our fundraising efforts ahead of the Dragon Boat Race, the Prettys CSR team organised a Great British Bake Off – and it exceeded all expectations!
Prettys staff are not only experts in the legal field but appear to be a dab hand in the kitchen as well! Our colleagues brought in their sweet and savoury homemade creations to help raise funds for our charity of the year, but also for the added glory of being named Prettys’ Star Baker and possibly Prettys’ GBBO Champion!
Over the two-day event we had cupcakes replicating a Chinese dragon, incredibly indulgent chocolate chip cookies, savoury muffins, vegan bakes, a Greek loaf, a variety of brownies and the lockdown classic – a banana bread. Paul Hollywood and Mary Berry (in the form of our Managing Partner, Ian Waine and COO, Lynn MacDonald) took the time to judge the bakes and were very keen to ensure that we had no soggy bottoms. They also debated whether anyone was worthy of the Paul Hollywood ‘handshake’. Our first star baker was Grace Ambrose for some incredible sausage rolls and our second star baker was Ellie Claffey for a show-stopping Pavlova. All creations were delicious.
Following the success of this Bake Off, we are also very excited to have arranged another Prettys’ Festive Bake Off. Staff were invited to prepare Christmas themed bakes, which were once again judged by our very own Bake Off judging panel. All proceeds will be donated to Fresh Start New Beginnings.
Additional events
In addition to the above, there have been a number of events carried out throughout the year to raise funds for Fresh Start New Beginnings.
First up was a team of five braving The Whole Hog Mud Run on 9 October 2022. The Whole Hog is about a “5 mile with 30 obstacles including crawling (under cargo nets), climbing (up steep banks and walls), wading through rivers, tunnels, slides, jumps, swings and monkey bars…all in a shed load of MUD!”.
In addition, we have run a few internal fundraising events at our office in Ipswich.
When Fresh Start New Beginnings has a younger child in their care, they use a variety of toys and teddy bears to help them speak about their experiences. Therapies like these aid a child’s future recovery from the trauma that they have experienced. We therefore ran a “Guess the name of the Teddy Bear” competition and a ‘how many pencils in the jar’.
The winning name of the teddy bear was Theodore III and, along with the money raised, the teddy was donated to Fresh Start New Beginnings as a gift from Prettys.
During the week commencing 5 December 2022, Prettys staff also participated in a Christmas jumper week. Work attire was swapped for the most festive, sparkly, comical and tasteless Christmas jumpers, all in aid of Fresh Start New Beginnings. This was a great start to the festive period and got staff into the festive spirit.
