Venner Shipley: What Do We Get Up To?

This article was included in our Winter 2010 edition of Inside IP magazine.

The staff at Venner Shipley are a charitable and fun bunch, supporting many good causes over the years.

For instance, did you know that we have supported the Jeans for Genes Appeal (www.jeansforgenes.com) since 2005?  Indeed, we have raised over £2,300 for the Appeal to date - not bad for simply wearing our denim to work on Jeans for Genes Day each year.  Jeans for Genes supports children who have been seriously affected by genetic disorders and also funds pioneering research into such conditions.

This year will also see the firm supporting an apprentice restaurant at the annual Venner Shipley Christmas party.  The restaurant chosen for the event is owned by the charity, Training For Life (www.trainingforlife-city.org).  It is a social enterprise offering people who have rather lost their way in life a chance to get their lives back on track, learning the skills that will secure them employment in the hospitality industry.  Venner Shipley is delighted to support this venture this Christmas.

The staff at our Cambridge office run a couple of entrepreneurial fund-raising schemes of their own.  They have a communal snack box, which is regularly replenished with chocolate and other goodies.  By making donations in return for snacks from the box, they contribute to the coffers of Marie Curie Cancer Care (www.mariecurie.org.uk).  The Cambridge staff also recycle used coffee discs, as dispensed from their coffee machine, using the TerraCycle scheme (www.terracycle.net) to raise money for East Anglian Children’s Hospice (www.each.org.uk).  Who would have thought that eating chocolate and drinking coffee could have such benefits?!

Not all of our charitable ventures are this easy, however.

Take Alex Brown, for example, who recently endured a sponsored bike ride in aid of the British Heart Foundation (www.bhf.org.uk).  Nothing too untoward about that, you might think?  Well, it was 75 miles from London to Brighton and all off-road!  Alex, accompanied by two friends, raised lots of money for the charity.  Well done, Alex; a great achievement!

Michelle Jamieson has also been out on her bike from London to Brighton this year, raising funds for the British Heart Foundation.  However, unlike Alex, she (sensibly) opted for the on-road route, covering 54 miles.  Good work, Michelle!

Yoko Penaluna and Silke Schnerr from our Cambridge office took on a physical challenge in aid of charity this year too.  They took part in the Race for Life in Cambridge in the summer, raising money for Cancer Research UK (www.cancerresearchuk.org).  Fantastic work, ladies!

A special mention also goes to Emma Barker from our London office, who regularly gives up her free time to work as a redball volunteer for the sports charity, Right to Play (www.righttoplay.com).  Right to Play seeks to improve the lives of children in some of the most disadvantaged areas of the world by using the power of sport and play for development, health and peace.  As a redball volunteer, Emma helps to organise, take part in and fundraise at charity sporting events; for example, she has been a referee’s assistant and a team host at corporate football charity events and has fundraised on the stands at sporting events including the Tennis Masters and Islington Festival of Sports and Cycling.  Great work, Emma!

Our charitable nature is clearly in our genes too – Siân Gill’s son, James, successfully completed a one-mile walk this year, raising money for Barnardos (www.barnardos.org.uk).  Not bad considering  he’s only two years old and had chickenpox at the time!

In addition to taking part in charitable events, the staff at Venner Shipley enjoy a wealth of social events, organised by the firm’s social committee.  This year has seen staff members battling it out at the local 10-pin bowling alley, enjoying 20/20 cricket at London’s Oval and a performance of Shakespeare’s The Comedy of Errors at Regent’s Park’s open air theatre.

Perhaps the highlight on the firm’s social calendar so far this year, however, has been our summer outing to Black Park Country Park in Wexham, Bucks.  Here, we challenged ourselves to a high-wire forest adventure, being let loose to swing through the trees and fly along zip wires.  The experience certainly got the adrenaline pumping!  We also enjoyed a lesson in African drumming in the forest, each one of us having a drum and a choice of percussion instruments to play.  It’s fair to say, then, that there’s far more to Venner Shipley than may initially meet the eye.  Not only do we take pride in our work as you might expect, but we actively and keenly participate in both charitable and social events.

Not surprisingly, therefore, we are now looking for bigger and better challenges for 2011.  We are particularly interested in a physical challenge that we can do as a group, in aid of a worthy cause.  Having cycled, run and now zip-lined our way through various parts of the UK this year, perhaps it’s time for us to take to the water?  Suggestions on a postcard please!

Tanya Heare 29 Nov 2010

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