Supporting Tilehurst Gymnastics Club's fundraising efforts

We were delighted to have recently supported Tilehurst Gymnastics Club (TGC) Competition in aid of fundraising for new equipment and premises, thanks to the passion of Landmark’s Internal Sales Executive, Victoria Eggleton.

Victoria said:

“I am an accomplished Artistic Gymnast and, having spent 16 years of my childhood training at the sport, was County Champion in 1995. I love working with children and have been an Activity Leader at School Holiday Clubs for some time. I still keep up the gymnastics, attending adult classes on a weekly basis and am really passionate about the work Tilehurst Gymnastics Club does.  I have been helping at the club since 2012, coaching children of all ages and ability every Saturday. TGC was originally formed in January 2009 and now runs 29 classes a week involving 382 club members and 140 school children.

“The Club recently held their Gymnastics Club Competition in aid of fundraising for new equipment such as springboards and crash mats, as well as to put towards much needed new premises. 

“The competition was an extremely successful event, providing an opportunity for over 270 children to demonstrate their gymnastics skills, as well as allowing their parents to share in their achievements. It has been great to be able to play such an active role in contributing to this worthy cause, and I’m so pleased that the overall event raised £4,500, £500 of which was donated by Landmark Information Group.”

Landmark continues to support our two nominated charities, MapAction and Sue Ryder, as well as backing the efforts of our staff in their own worthy charities and community causes. During our last financial year Landmarker’s raised over £15,000 (Landmark charity matched over £7,500) for a range of charities including: Comic Relief, Coppafeel Charity for Breast Cancer, WaterAid, European Disaster Volunteers, the Brain Tumour Charity, Sands, Parkinsons UK, British Heart Foundation, Children in Need, Help Tom Hear, Prostrate Cancer and local hospices.

Team Landmark take part in the Ride for Ryder challenge

A team of seven of us here at Landmark took part in the Ride for Ryder challenge on Sunday 11th May 2014. The challenge, now in its eight year, organised by the charity Sue Ryder who provide hospice and neurological care to people with life changing illnesses, started and finished at the Nettlebed hospice in Oxfordshire.

The charity raise funds to help continue and provide care for patients living with incurable illnesses with every £100 funding the cost of a nurse for a 7 hour day shift to provide care and support for patients and their families across Berkshire, Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire.

Overall, roughly 350 people took part in the challenge, up from 100 taking part last year, with three routes winding through the Chiltern Hills to choose from. Carole Ankers, Product Development Director, Marc Littlefair, Technical Support Manager, Matt Dellowe, Development Support Manager, Lisa Middleton, Marketing Executive, Nick Capek, Product Manager, Julian Bedford, Development Team Leader and Nicola Ellis chose to ride the 25 mile course and Ian Clarke, Chief Technology Officer, the 60 mile course. Together raising £1,115 for the charity which Landmark have pledged to match.

The weather on the day was not especially kind, with strong cross winds and the threat of downpour making each mile seem that much harder, but everyone was in good spirits and proud to be supporting a cause close to their hearts. One member of our team, Nick Capek, completed the 25 mile course on his childhood BMX from 1984, in memory of his Nan who spent time in the Sue Ryder home. Two members of the team (myself being one!) ended up off course and completing significantly more than the required 25 miles!

For me, I only very recently took up cycling – the last time I was on a road bike was probably as a child, other than that the odd (and boring) spin class in the gym. I bought a bike about a month ago and when the email came around asking if anyone would be interested in joining the team I thought it would be a great idea and I’d give myself a challenge to work towards, with the bonus of raising money for a worthwhile cause in the process. Never having done a cycling event before, it was daunting but I had already done a ride of 25 miles to prepare so I knew I could cover the distance. What I hadn’t prepared for was the strong winds coupled with large hills and a wrong turn, sapping my energy and making what should have been an enjoyable ride seem like an epic 32 mile marathon -finishing in 2 hours 44 mins. Not bad for a beginner….. maybe 60 miles next year!?

Overall, the winning times for each course were:

·         10 miles      00.55.07

·         25 miles      01.53.47

·         60 miles      03.36.09

Landmark continues to support our two nominated charities, Sue Ryder and MapAction, as well as backing the efforts of our staff in their own worthy charities and community causes. During our last financial year Landmarkers raised over £15,000 (Landmark charity matched over £7,500) for a range of charities including: Comic Relief, Coppafeel Charity for Breast Cancer, WaterAid, European Disaster Volunteers and the Brain Tumour Charity. We promote healthy living through a range of initiatives and with National Cycling week coming up in June and our continued support of Jessica Varnish, the most promising young talent of the British Track Cycling team we are looking forward to seeing what else we will be taking part in.

Lisa Middleton
Marketing Executive

Landmark Information Group donates £3,250 to humanitarian aid charity MapAction

Landmark Information Group has donated a prize pot of more than £3,250 to humanitarian aid charity MapAction.

Presenting the cheque to MapAction’s Head of Fundraising Mim Wright [pictured below], Mark Milner, CEO of Landmark Information Group said: “MapAction provides invaluable and truly unique services by identifying which disaster-struck areas are in need of vital support and where relief sources are.  We are delighted to present them with this cheque which will help make sure aid gets to the people in greatest need.”

MapAction is a charity that maps life-saving information about disaster situations so that aid agencies can target relief efforts effectively. It is the only non-governmental organisation (NGO) anywhere in the world with a capacity to deploy a fully trained and equipped humanitarian mapping and information management team, often within a few hours of an alert. 

In 2012, due to the synergies in mapping and geospatial data, Landmark launched its partnership with the charity by pledging a corporate donation of £2,500 as well as organising a range of fund-raising activities to help MapAction get aid.

Mim Wright, Head of Fundraising at MapAction says: "MapAction volunteers are on standby 24/7 to respond to any humanitarian emergency anywhere in the world, so it's very reassuring to know that Landmark is committed to supporting us. Their energy and enthusiasm will help MapAction to save lives and minimise suffering when a disaster strikes."