Team Guidant gives back with 'Little Differences' this festive season

By Selena Ayling, Client Services Director

​In the heart of Luton town centre, within a gorgeous chapel that has been converted to offices, Guidant Global’s Public Sector team are busy supporting our Local Authority and third sector clients. Although Christchurch House is the smallest off-client site office we have in the UK, the brilliant teams like to take on huge challenges!

This festive season, their challenge was to raise as much awareness and donations as possible for the ‘Little Differences’ campaign, our internal charity drive to support children and families across the local authorities we support, who are most in need.

Our ‘Little Differences’ campaign this year is quite unique…
Because we aren’t supporting a specific charity! Instead, we’re raising money directly to make up Christmas hampers here in our own office. These will then be delivered personally to families that Bedford Borough Council have identified as the most in need.

This year, we turned our attention to Children’s Services.
We’ve decided to create and distribute Christmas hampers because the year-end holidays can be the toughest time of the year for some families. In line with that, we’re also supporting Luton Council’s request to donate £10 Tesco vouchers and food items to Luton Foodbank. These initiatives hit close to home (quite literally) for many of #TeamGuidant who live locally, as the families we’d be giving back to are based close by to where we live and work each day.

Especially within the teams at Christchurch House, not only are we aware of the extreme poverty that exists in pockets of our community, our close work with our Local Authority clients also means we have a greater insight into the amount of hard work that the Social Care teams do, and needs of the families they support.

Although part of our aim is to alleviate some pressure on the families…
Ultimately, the real difference will be to those children who may not ordinarily be so lucky to find presents under their tree on Christmas morning.

We always strive to add value to our accounts throughout the year, but at Christmas time, it’s particularly important to work in partnership with clients to really try and make even more of a difference.

Though our contributions may be small in the grand scheme of things, it can truly have a big impact – which is why we call our charity drive, ‘Little Differences’.

And with that, we kick off our fundraising.

Safe to say, we sleighed it!
From our JustGiving page and the generous donations of suppliers, partners and employees, we raised £500, which was used to make up 25 luxury Christmas hampers. Team Guidant’s CEO, Simon Blockley, also allowed us to approach the Guidant Global employees that hadn’t claimed their Christmas party allowance for this year to put it towards purchasing gift cards to add to the hamper.

This brought us an influx of £600 more to add to our fundraising efforts, bringing the total to £1,100!

What’s going in these fabulous hampers?
Alongside the £20 gift cards, we’ve filled the hampers with items that would bring some festive cheer to families who would struggle to afford such items at this time of year – from mince pies, biscuits, preserves, jams, cordials, Christmas crackers to games, there were also an assortment of small gifts for families with children and teenagers.

Some of the households identified by the council also have newborns or very young babies, so we packed some hampers with this in mind by adding infant clothing items.

A real team effort, just in time for Christmas.
People in the office got involved with putting the hampers together and transporting them to the council to be distributed to the families just in time for the special day.

Small acts of kindness and compassion makes a big and lasting impact on people in our community.
Whether someone had donated, promoted the campaign or helped us to purchase items for the hampers, every contribution has ensured that 25 families in the Bedfordshire area will have a happier Christmas than they might have anticipated, and that the children (who likely would’ve gone without a present this year) will have something to open on Christmas Day, rather than feeling forgotten or left out.

I’d encourage other companies to consider doing something similar in their own communities where possible, because it is these ‘little differences’ we make in our own towns and cities that can have the biggest and most noticeable impact.

An excerpt of a letter from Colin Foster, Director of Children’s Services, Bedford Borough Council:
I would like to say a massive thank you to all at #teamguidant for donating so many wonderful Christmas hampers. All of your donations will make a huge difference to families who really do need support at Christmas.

There are families in Bedford Borough who will always remember your gifts. There are children who will have a better Christmas than they could have expected because of you.

​

Want to make a real difference to your own local community? Join our supportive and inclusive family today >