It’s been another busy quarter at Future Planning HQ, with team-building exercises, charity fundraisers, and local volunteering all vying for our after-work attention.
Plus, the not-insignificant challenge of a team triathlon!
Keep reading for all the latest in your quarterly Future Planning team update.
Three times the challenge
Ana’s team – comprising Ana, Adam and Edi – have made the brave (or possibly mad?) decision to take on a triathlon.
Ana admits that “none of us are big runners, cyclists or swimmers and at least one of the sports terrifies each of us”.
She assures us, though, that this only makes the challenge “more fun”.
All three are currently in training and gaining sponsorship for our chosen charity, Prospect Hospice.
It’s a charity that is close to Future Planning’s heart. It is also the charity supported by the My Dad is Bigger than Your Dad musical festival that we sponsor.
The triathlon is due to take place on 24 September, and the guys have been undergoing two months of gruelling training. With holidays, injuries, and fears of open water to navigate, it’s been a difficult journey but the big day has almost arrived.
We’re sure you’ll join us in wishing them all the best in their training and good luck for the big day! And if you’d like to sponsor them, check out our Just Giving page.
Watch this space for our brand-new fundraising page
Speaking of both charity and the My Dad is Bigger than Your Dad festival, this year’s event took place on Saturday 22 July in aid of Prospect Hospice.
It was a roaring success once again.
The rain (“It was torrential all day”, Ana reports) couldn’t dampen our spirits and the event was brilliantly supported by the local community.
The event has raised more than £8,000, with that figure set to rise once all the money from raffle ticket sales has been received and calculated. The event organisers are hoping to see the current figure of £8,300 continue to rise on final confirmation of raffle ticket sales, which will bump that figure up even more!
With 800-plus attendees on-site on and off throughout the day, 2023 presales surpassed 2022’s figure by more than 150 tickets, which is great news for this growing event, in only its third year.
As sponsors of the event, Future Planning were delighted to receive this message:
“Once again, thanks to you and the whole team for your support, and also for braving the rain with your smiles still intact! We really do appreciate it.”
Aaron, one of the festival’s organisers prepared for the festival in his own inimitable style, by completing a Tough Mudder. A huge challenge, Aaron’s efforts were even more impressive as he uses a walking stick, adding an extra layer of difficulty to navigating the muddy obstacles!
A huge congratulations to Aaron from all of us at Future Planning.
As we continue to support local charity fundraising events and compete in them ourselves, we’ll soon be gathering this news into one place.
Keep an eye out for our fundraising and community page, coming to our website soon. For now, you can support the team using our Just Giving page.
Volunteering work at Oak and Furrows continues
Our team’s tireless work at the RSPCA Oak and Furrows Animal Rescue Centre continues. And the place is particularly cute at the moment. It’s full of baby animals, from birds and deer to foxes and hedgehogs.
The centre has recently introduced soft-release pens for corvids to help them reintegrate back into the wild.
Ana also took on the care of an orphaned leveret over the summer, re-homing and re-wilding him. Following his rescue, Ana fed him spring greens and cabbage treats.
After five days of being fed, the leveret regained enough strength to escape! He is happily living in the woods now.
Still to come this summer…
Over the next few weeks, we have more team-building exercises (sneak peek above), we’re sponsoring a local badminton tournament, and we’ll soon have a new starter to introduce you to, through our partnership with Cirencester College.
Stay tuned for more news on this, and to find out how Ana and her triathletes get on!
