A year of fantastic fundraising for Bluebell Wood has left one of Sheffield’s biggest employers determined to do even more in 2018.

Leading IT products and services provider Insight is setting a target of £100,000 and doubling its number of staff volunteer days for Bluebell Wood this year. Last year Insight staff raised over £40,000 and volunteered 100 days for the charity.

Insight will be the main sponsor of Bluebell Wood’s Colour Dash on 28 April for the second year running. It is also taking part in the Master Cutler’s Challenge, which sees companies and community groups across the region competing to raise as much as possible from a starting £50 seed fund.

Members of staff will be attempting the world’s fastest zip wire Velocity at Zip World on 19 May, while others will be trekking the Yorkshire 3 Peaks and the National 3 Peaks, competing in Bluebell Wood’s It’s a Knockout in June and helping the charity celebrate at its 10th Birthday Ball in September.

Insight is even sending one of its management team to prison for a day. Head of Sales Rob Glegg will take part in Bluebell Wood’s Jail n’ Bail event on 4 April, where he will be taken by police van to Hellaby’s Lifewise Centre, sent down to a cell and only released after raising a minimum ‘bail’ through sponsorship.

Insight’s involvement with Bluebell Wood started after Ian Johnson, Sales Specialist, took a tour of the hospice. As well as leading the hugely successful fundraising activities at Insight, Ian has encouraged other businesses to support Bluebell Wood and has recently been made an Ambassador for the charity.

Ian said: “My first visit to Bluebell Wood wasn’t what I’d expected. The word hospice can conjure up sad feelings, but the reality isn’t that. I saw everyone smiling and enjoying themselves, including the families. Despite the circumstances you can see people laughing and having fun. It was a very easy decision to support Bluebell Wood.

“We usually choose a new charity partner each year but the support from Bluebell Wood’s people has been so good we’re going to work with them for another. Their fundraising team is really enthusiastic and they’ve made it really easy for all our people to get involved in everything, from volunteering to events.

“We’re determined to make our fundraising even more ambitious than last year, but giving our time to help make a difference also matters. Every Insight employee can now volunteer two of their working days each year for Bluebell Wood. We’ve noticed how fantastic volunteering is for staff morale and team building so this year we’ve increased the number of volunteer days from one to two per person. We hope this will be a win-win for Bluebell Wood and Insight.”

Rachel Dawes, Corporate Fundraising Manager, Bluebell Wood, said: “Insight have been amazing supporters over the last year and we’re over the moon that they want to carry on supporting us. They’ve rolled up their sleeves and done all sorts of things, from volunteering to having a donation station in their workplace which has donated over 600 bags so far.  We can’t thank them enough for their commitment and we’re really looking forward to another brilliant year working with them.”