A bright yellow clad team of six intrepid volunteers from Lindsays’ Edinburgh office took two hours out of the office last Friday to raise almost £700 handing out daffodil pins in the city’s West End.
Carolyn Kerr, Support Manager at Lindsays said that signing up for the Daffodil Appeal was the first thing she did when Lindsays announced its initiative to support staff who are keen to help a local charity or community organisation.
“I have wanted to do this for a long time but getting a weekend slot is really hard so I was thrilled to be able to sign up for a weekday slot. My brother-in-law sadly passed away in the Marie Curie hospice at Fairmilehead a few years ago and the care he received there was excellent.
Carolyn continued: “I hadn’t planned for this to be a group event but Marie Curie were very supportive when I suggested it and even brought all the collecting equipment (including a box of daffodils, a collecting bucket, a branded tabard and a very fetching yellow hat each) to the office and picked it up again from us afterwards.
“Luckily it was a nice day and town was busy. I didn’t really know what to expect but it’s amazing how many people thank you for doing something like this. They stop and buy their daffodil and tell you what a good job you are doing. I really didn’t expect that - I just thought we should be thanking them for donating!”
Marie Curie’s Great Daffodil Appeal has been raising awareness and funds for 28 years with the first one being held in Scotland in 1986.
Friday’s team of volunteers, which included Lindsays Managing Partner, Alasdair Cummings, raised £698.96 over the two hours they were collecting which is well over 40% of the total funds raised during the street collection for the whole day.
Carolyn concluded: “We are delighted that we were able to raise so much money for this fantastic cause. We all thoroughly enjoyed the experience and would be happy to do it again in the future.”
Lindsays team: [from left to right] Cherie McMillan, Carolyn Kerr, Murray Cree, Alasdair Cummings, Irene Hamilton-Jones, Alison Ramsay