Two Jersey charities have benefitted from a successful four-week charity fitness challenge between staff at two local businesses.
For the second year, Alex Picot Chartered Accountants and Alex Picot Trust, organised a head-to-head steps initiative to promote wellbeing among their staff and raise funds for two local charities.
The staff from each firm were challenged to increase their activity levels over four weeks and track their weekly steps using pedometers, to contribute to their overall team steps total.
At the end of the four weeks, staff from Alex Picot Trust counted a total of 7,325,938 steps, while the victors, Alex Picot Chartered Accountancy counted a total of 7,578,929 steps. For every five thousand steps recorded during the challenge each firm made a donation to their chosen charity.
Their efforts resulted in the Jersey Motor Neurone Disease Association receiving a donation of £1,516 and The Stroke Association receiving a cheque for £1,500.
Partner at Alex Picot Chartered Accountants, Don Connolly, said: “A big thanks to every one of our team for their commitment to this initiative over the last month, which has proven to be both fun and rewarding. Throughout the Challenge we were aware that the sums being raised would make a difference to the people in our community which the charities help, and that spurred us all on to be as active as possible. We hope to continue this initiative between the firms in future years, as we continually look for ways to motivate our staff and benefit Jersey charities.”
Andrew Le Cheminant, Director at Alex Picot Trust, added: “After a lot of effort by all staff from both companies, it was a close result and we congratulate the accountancy practice on their victory. During the challenge a healthy dose of inter-office competition saw us collectively totalling around 15 million steps over four weeks with Alex Picot Accountants leading with only a small margin.
As directors we were very pleased to see staff get on board with the initiative for the second year, hopefully improving their fitness levels at the same time as raising funds for two good local causes.”
As part of its national ‘Know Your Blood Pressure’ campaign, The Stroke Association carried out free blood pressure monitoring among the staff at both companies during the four-week challenge.
