2012 was another exceptional year for Irish Life Staff Charities with a massive €70,000 raised by the Irish Life Staff Charities committee. As is tradition, this amount will be matched by the company itself and given to two charities. Therefore two charities have benefitted from a total of €140,000 because of the fundraising efforts of Irish Life staff. Each year staff select two charities, one who do their work in Ireland and the other who do their work abroad. The charities are voted for by staff, and are typically a charity where there is a connection, directly or indirectly, between some members of Irish Life staff and the chosen charity.
In 2012 the two charities chosen were the Irish Motor Neurone Disease Association (IMNDA) & Haiti Orphanage Project ESPWA.
Since 1996, Irish Life staff have donated €1.25m to their selected charities through various (and often very imaginative) fund raising events organized by the Staff Charities committee. Some of the events which have taken place over the years include fashion shows, fake weddings, walking a mile in her shoes, abseiling down their 9-storey head office building, skipping through lunch (conveniently called “Skip-Lunch”), and Copper Kilo, where 200kg’s of coppers were collected!
2012 was no exception when it came to imaginative fund-raising events.
First of all, the Staff Charities committee took advantage of the Euro 2012 taking place in order to raise funds through Jersey days and prediction competitions.
The committee also run lucrative book sales which have seen some popular books turn into money making machines, as they keep coming back for re-sale once people finish reading them!
Also on the events calendar was a fun run along the quays one lunch time, followed by a cake sale back at the office, just to replace all those burned calories!
2012 also saw a major event organized by the Staff Charities committee in September 2012; White Collar Boxing.
Having run a similar event three years ago, Irish Life staff Charities once again teamed up with White Collar Boxing to organise another showdown in the squared circle, giving some staff the opportunity to step into the ring to (safely) take on a colleague in a boxing match. The event took place in a full sized boxing ring assembled in the staff restaurant and was titled the “Rumble in the Restaurant II – unfinished business”
30 members of staff, both male and female, spent 10 weeks getting in shape and learning the basic skills to step into the ring and battle it out, all in the name of charity! The grueling training regime took place at the National Boxing Stadium. There was added excitement and motivation at one of the sessions, as the participants got to meet Katie Taylor and Paddy Barnes, both just back from their heroic achievements at London 2012.
The event took place at the end of September, so by now the bruised bodies (and in some cases, bruised egos) should be recovered, and people are back speaking to each other again!
The other major Staff Charities event of the year saw the Staff Restaurant turned into a fabulous Winter Wonderland for the Staff Charities Christmas Party. While this was a great fundraiser, it also gave the Staff Charities Committee an opportunity to say thank you to everyone for their generous donations during the year.
Lastly, the final and most important event of Staff Charities work in 2012 actually took place in 2013, as last week saw the handover of cheques to both charities. This event was, as always, the proudest moment of the year for the staff and the committee, as they get a chance to see or hear how the money they have raised over the course of the year is going to be used to improve the lives of many people.
Looking forward to 2013, when we can do it all over again… We have some interesting ideas already….
Cormac Donnelly BBS QFA
Cormac is the Manager of Voluntary Protection Products in our Corporate Business Division.
His role consists of managing a portfolio of approx. 100 clients, predominantly large public sector bodies, and providing them with protection benefit solutions for their members.
His main responsibilities include managing a team to administer the day to day operations for the clients, product development, marketing, client relationship and identifying new business opportunities.
