Volunteering Spotlight Edinburgh Home Link & Soccer Game

Home Link Donations with the Edinburgh Team

“We delivered all the parcels to Home Link yesterday, and the generosity of everyone who participated (almost the entire office) is just off the scale. Each year we’ve run this, it’s surpassed what I thought we could pull off, and this year has been no exception!

The office raised £2,490 to buy:

• 60 sets of lovely warm jumpers, hats and gloves for children ranging from babies to teens
• 40 bulging hampers of food to be distributed to families in need

Thank you so much to everyone who was involved – you’ve achieved so much, and it’ll really make a difference to the lives of the children and families we’ve supported.  A special thanks to the volunteer leaders – you led your teams impeccably. We couldn’t have pulled this off without your hard work.” – Si Antoun | Subject Matter Expert – Reconciliation

A Great Day Raising Money for Charity in Edinburgh

Thank you all for donating to our Just Giving fundraiser. We managed to raise £305 for the Edinburgh Foodbank in just a couple of days. Overall, the event raised over £7,050 for various local charities, which is fantastic.

As for the football… 28 companies participated, and the day commenced with a round-robin group stage against three other companies. The top two teams advanced to the ‘Champions League’ knockout phase, and the bottom teams played in the ‘Europa League’ competition. The competition was structured in such a way that making it to the Final Four in the Champions League, or winning the Europa League, would secure a place in the final round in April, where the top 5 teams from each of the seven regional tournaments will compete.

Clearwater started off strong, finishing top of the group and securing a spot in the Champions League RO16 unbeaten.  However, after seven wins in a row, we wouldn’t be eight times lucky. We met the reigning national champions in the final and ended the day runners-up! A full run-down of the day can be viewed at Edinburgh Football Tournament Business Fives November 2022.

The football was followed by an award ceremony and presentation from guest speaker Christophe Berra, who talked about his playing career where he won 41 caps for his country, alongside silverware, at Hearts, Wolves and Raith Rovers.

All in all, it was a hugely successful day, and we look forward to a trip to Glasgow next April for the National Finals Day and a chance to compete for another charity donation!

“For the past year, the Edinburgh office has run a weekly 5-a-Side football game at Boroughmuir High School. Last November, we were invited to play in Edinburgh’s Business Fives charity tournament. It consisted of a round-robin format tournament with a knockout competition, followed by a drink reception and guest speaker, all in the name of charity. The winning team had a portion of the total entry fees donated to their chosen charity on top of any fundraising. We as a team represented the Edinburgh Food Project. In the current cost of living crisis, and heading into the winter months, the Food Project felt like a great causer!

The Food Project’s mission is to provide emergency food supplies and support to people in crisis, while working with people, communities, and our partner agencies to address the underlying causes of food poverty. They do this by operating eight foodbank centers across the City of Edinburgh, which provide emergency food supplies, as well as More Than Food: Money Advice and Mental Health & Wellbeing Project, which helps address the underlying causes of food poverty.

We have set up a giving page to help fund these efforts. The link for this is as follows, and any donations are greatly appreciated: Ewan Stirling Business Fives Page – JustGiving.com” – Ewan Stirling | Reconciliation Analyst