Recruitment specialists from Poole and Bournemouth-based TeamJobs are giving up their comfy beds and sleeping outside to help the YMCA.
The seven-strong team will be braving the cold to take part in YMCA Bournemouth’s Big Sleep Easy at Bournemouth Sports Club (Chapel Gate) on November 16.
The event starts at 6.45 pm and ends at 8am on November 17 and will seek to raise awareness of homelessness and much-needed funds to combat it.
The TeamJobs staff will join hundreds of other fundraisers wrapping up, building shelters out of cardboard boxes and bedding down for the night, warmed only by their sleeping bag, hot drinks and the supportive messages of those who have sponsored them.
The TeamJobs volunteers are Caroline Firth, Lucy Martin, Rachael Mortimer, Yasmin Cottrell, Rachel Wilson, Nicola Dawson and Helen Purbrick.
Caroline Firth said: “Since opening our new offices in Bournemouth Town Centre we have all become much more aware of the problem of homelessness and the terrible hardships homeless people encounter on a daily basis.
“Giving up our warm beds for the night to raise awareness – and hopefully a really good amount of sponsorship money – is the very least we can do to highlight this great cause.”
Last year’s Big Sleep Easy raised £25,000.
YMCA Bournemouth Fundraising Manager Martin Stockley thanked the TeamJobs volunteers for signing up and urged others to join them:
“We are immensely grateful to TeamJobs for their support and commitment to making a positive long-term difference to the lives of individuals in need. The businesses who took part in last year’s Big Sleep Easy found it a humbling but hugely enjoyable team-working challenge. If you’d like to find out more, please get in touch by emailing us at fundraising@ymcabournemouth.org.uk.”
The TeamJobs Big Sleep Easy team can be sponsored via: https://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/fundraiser-display/showROSomeoneSpecialPage?pageUrl=TeamJobs