Children In Need 2011 and 2012

Never under estimate looking silly …..

                              …. There is great power in fancy dress!

I am sure many of you have paid a pound or fifty pence to come to school in non-uniform for Children in Need day? In the United Kingdom this is a widely recognised charity and most people have heard of it. BBC Children in Need is the BBC's UK charity so enjoys a luxury many charities do not get – mass media. The charity states that since 1980 it has raised over £600 million to change the lives of disabled children and young people in the UK. In the average home in the UK, Pudsey Bear can be picked out of a line up.

This is a charity that attracts scores of celebrities; in fact BBC news reported that BBC Children in Need 2012 reached its highest total ever of £26,757,446!

But it’s not all about pop stars and television personalities; there are all the little people like you and me out there doing our part as well, alone or with our communities.

Children in Need is not something I really became involved with other than a chance to get out of school uniform for a day, until I started working in an office! I began working in Fujistu and as Product Support Engineer I was responsible for a team of technicians working tirelessly for this global giant, this small handful of people on the EE account who really give it all to keep the IT of this particular customer working seven days a week. But despite this busy and oft times chaotic environment there is always time for fun, banter and a good cause!

As part of the 3663 account previously in 2011 we had managed to raise almost three hundred pounds by going hugely over the top with fancy dress! Several people painted their whole bodies BLUE! To become smurfs! I’m pretty sure that gaining the brief but pleasant opportunity to throw wet sponges at our managers helped.

In 2012 Fujitsu provided the telephony for Children in Need, and many people from the Stevenage site were bundled onto a bus and driven to Manchester, where they worked alongside the CEO to answer the phones. I was not one of those people – there were limited spaces on the bus obviously.

It was November 2012 - whilst most the attention was on the Manchester site that the EE Service Desk staff went all out. We made dares and bets and these formed the foundation of the targets set! As a small team we didn’t expect to raise much, the enormous building felt empty that day with many people in Manchester or working from home. But we had agreements! Firstly if as a team we managed to raise £200 I would allow my team to choose my costume for the day, secondly if we hit £300 then Waqaas Ahmed would wear a dress for the whole day! And lastly EVERYONE on the desk would be in fancy dress.

This is what I get for letting my staff choose my costume! Thanks guys!

The results were both side splitting hilarity and reflected a huge effort by the team. I ended up dressed a Boris Johnson the mayor of London for the entire day, a very ‘in joke’ among the team. However I have discovered that having a man in a dress walk around with a big orange bucket to collect donations - is a sure fire way of raising money for charity.

…Who knows what November 2013 will bring for our team!

Children In Need 2012 Video:

Enjoy.

A good article on the 2012 Children in Need is on the BBC media centre:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/mediacentre/latestnews/2012/cin-on-the-night-total.html