GWP team conquer 3 Peaks challenge fundraising for Foodbank

he team of GWP employees and friends that successfully completed the Three Peaks challenge last month, have raised a fantastic £2,578 (including gift aid) for the Swindon Foodbank charity.

With the money raised helping the charity with its day to day operating costs (including running a van, warehouse costs etc.), it also provides vital cash to purchase items that are not often donated – such as toothpaste and toiletries.

Andrew Hill, Project Manager at Swindon Foodbank, visited GWP to collect the funds raised by the team, meeting with event organiser Barry Cuss at GWP’s Cricklade manufacturing facility.

Barry Cuss, Maintenance Manager at GWP Group, was the main organiser of the event. During training – which started 4 months prior to the challenge – Barry commented;

None of us have ever done anything like his before so we know it’s going to be tough. We’re going to try and complete it in twenty-four hours which means we won’t get much time to sleep, but as a team we’ve decided that just to accomplish it at all will be a real achievement.

He added;

We’ve done lots of training so we are well prepared. I’ve logged our training in a spreadsheet and I’ve noticed that collectively we’re already climbed 16,000m which is higher than Everest (8848m) so hopefully we’ve prepared well!

The team decided to raise money for Swindon Foodbank after they became GWP Group’s adopted charity earlier in 2014.

Barry was one of the staff members who assisted Foodbank with a project to improve facilities at their warehouse so saw the charity in action first-hand.

Barry said of the working with the Foodbank;

Having worked at the Foodbank’s warehouse I learnt about what goes on at the charity and saw just how many people need their support. It makes you realise how small amounts of help, both practical and financial, go a long way to helping people who are less fortunate. It just seemed the right thing to do to try and raise some money for such a good cause.

Andrew Hill, Project Manager at the Swindon Foodbank, added;

I have a great personal respect for all of the members of the team, and especially for Barry who made this all happen. I would like to pass on my personal thanks and very best wishes for this upcoming challenge. If we had more support in the way you guys have given us on an ongoing basis we would not have to worry about our future ability to provide for those in Crisis in OUR community. It seems a small “reward”, for your efforts…..but….THANK YOU! All the best, on behalf of all of our clients…

In total, a team of nine GWP employees and friends undertook the daunting challenge at the beginning of September.

Scaling the 3 highest peaks in the UK – Scafell Pike, Ben Nevis and Snowdon – in less than 24 hours, the team walked approximately 26 miles with an ascent of around 9,800 feet (approximately 3,000 metres).

This is in addition to travelling the length of the UK by minibus to get to each of the peaks.

The team included organiser Barry Cuss, Chris Ricketts, Ben Lehmann, Jack Pedley, Ben Lewis, Matthew Neal, Nick Priestner and Tom Wilkie. A special mention must also go to Andy Hubble, who undertook the driving duties.

Climbing each peak in turn, and starting at midday on Saturday (13th September), they will be driven from the foot of one mountain to the next.

The details of each climb is summarised below

Ben Nevis (1,344 m or 4,409 ft.), the highest mountain in Scotland
Scafell Pike (978 m or 3,209 ft.), the highest mountain in England
Snowdon / Yr Wyddfa (1,085 m or 3,560 ft.), the highest mountain in Wales

Although just outside of the 24 hour target set at the beginning of the challenge, the team were delighted to complete the challenge and raise a great sum for the charity.

Barry Cuss, organiser of the event, said;

I would like to thank everyone for all their efforts in completing the challenge, I personally really enjoyed it and it was a great experience. Officially as it’s a team sport our recorded time should be from the start to the last person home which was 30.5 hours. This isn’t a bad time at all and is something we should be proud off. However, with perfect travelling times the majority of us would have been under the twenty-four hour target.

Andrew Hill also commented;

From all of us at Swindon Foodbank, well done and thank you very much! This has been a brilliant idea from start to finish and I’m sure everyone involved has taken away something personal for themselves as well as giving so wholeheartedly of their time and effort. You have raised a fab amount and I can only hope that this will inspire other groups to do sponsored events to support us too.

Swindon Foodbank has been GWP Group’s adopted charity since the beginning of 2014.

This has seen the company help with logistics, provided packaging for handling food and attracting donations, as well as improving the electrics at their distribution centre and creating marketing collateral.

More recently, GWP have manufactured collection boxes to streamline the charity’s operations when it comes to collecting donations from schools, churches and local organisations. These boxes, manufactured from a lightweight Correx®, double up as both a “point of sale” donation bin, plus when closed shut create an easy to use storage and handling solution.

For further information about Swindon Foodbank please click here, or alternatively view the News section of our website for everything going on at GWP.