Staff at homebuilder Vistry Mercia have taken on some daring challenges to raise more than £15,000 for Papyrus, a charity dedicated to the prevention of suicide.
Employees abseiled from a 418ft (127-metre) tower and did a skydive as part of their fundraising efforts.
Vistry Mercia, based at Dunston, near Stafford, is part of Vistry Group, which chose Papyrus as its charity last year and raised more than £250,000 across all divisions of the company during 2022.
Marketing manager at Vistry Mercia, Freya Halsall, said: “I couldn’t think of a more worthy cause for our fundraising efforts than the Papyrus charity. Their work is so important as they offer a genuine lifeline to young people through their services.
“And I am very proud of our staff who have supported our charity efforts by raising money and taking part in our awareness events. Some of them have certainly reached the heights – quite literally – in their commitment to fundraising for this excellent cause.”
Eight members of Vistry Mercia staff joined Vistry Housebuilding’s chief executive Keith Carnegie, to do a skydive from 10,000ft at Tilstock Airfield, in Shropshire, in August raising £5,000.
The following month staff took part in a golf day at The Shropshire Golf Centre, in Telford. After playing the 18-hole course, they enjoyed a meal and took part in a charity auction and awards ceremony. The fundraiser raised £8,000 for Papyrus.
In October, Ian Llewelyn and James Bednarz from Vistry Mercia raised a total of £2,000 by abseiling from the National Lift Tower in Northampton.
Employees also used their cooking skills to raise £200 in a bake-off-style challenge.
In addition to the fundraising, the company has held events to raise awareness of the issue of suicide.
These included the Vistry Voyage, a company-wide challenge in which staff carried a commemorative book by various means all around the country, covering 1,163 miles from start to finish. Everyone who took part in the trek signed the book. Vistry Mercia employees took on their leg of the journey on 21 September and handed on the book the next day after carrying it 23 miles by bike and on foot.
The company also held a mental health awareness event for staff in October at each of its developments in the Vistry Mercia region. Staff gathered for pizza and drinks, and site managers at the locations gave talks on the importance of mental health and wellbeing.
To find out more about Papyrus, visit papyrus-uk.org.
Vistry Mercia is building new homes across Staffordshire, Shropshire, Cheshire and Nottinghamshire under the Bovis Homes brands.
