The life and less ordinary times of LDC

By Lucie O’Reilly, BCH Businesss Development Consultant, Events 

On Friday 9^th December Birmingham Community Gospel Choir and CBSO Youth and Children’s Chorus’ will perform at Birmingham Children’s Hospital Christmas Concert.

Join us at 7:30pm at Birmingham Cathedral, St Philips and warm the wintery night with mulled wine and minced pies while the choirs dazzle with a mixture of traditional and contemporary carols, you can join in with too. BBC Midlands Today presenter Nick Owen will read alongside hospital staff and patients giving a real insight into life at the hospital over Christmas.

Tickets are £10 and available now at http://www.bch.org.uk/christmas_concert.php or call 0121 333 8506 for further details.

Editor’s Note:

BCH has been supported by the LDC Birmingham team for a number of years and in that time have provided over £85,000 for various appeals. This year the team at LDC are sponsoring the Christmas Concert which is a must go to event in the Birmingham calender. In addition it is probably worth noting the efforts of James Robinson, an executive in the Birmingham office, who this year has already supported BCH by competing in the Birmingham Half Marathon and will in November compete in the New York Marathon, once again supporting BCH. All donations would be welcomed via his support page: http://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/JamesRobinsonMarathons

LDC have been supporting Wargrave-based charity, Camp Mohawk for five years now, and while not all of us have the stamina to cycle to France, our Reading team pulled up their sleeves this week to help spring clean the charity’s grounds. 

Set in five acres of countryside around Wargrave, Camp Mohawk is a multi-functional day centre for children with a variety of special needs. Throughout the year the centre provides a range of activities, facilities and natural space to encourage visitors to play, socialise and learn in a secure and caring environment. 

Our team in Reading were joined by volunteers from Osborne Clarke, HSBC, PWC, Snell, Deloitte, KPMG, Ernst & Young, Spectrum, RSM Tenon, Hurst Morrison Thomson and Grant Thornton, bringing the number of workers to 40.

They spent the day gardening, painting and carrying out general maintenance at Camp Mohawk, ensuring the site is ready for the busy summer months. We were also pleased to discover that over the past five years, local corporate financiers have dedicated 1,800 hours of their time to spring cleaning and DIY at the camp. 

One of our portfolio companies, United House Group, provided over 50 meters of new fencing which was installed on the day and Fiberweb also supplied safety surfacing materials to facilitate wheelchair access on the grass. 

Thankfully the weather held out, and a great day was had by all, with the camp looking spick and span when we’d finished.

Today, Bristol Zoo’s Wow! Gorilla Trail was launched and the stunning sculptures made their way into Bristol via boat through the Harbourside ready to be placed in their locations around Bristol.

Hundreds of people turned out to the Harbour to see the Gorillas arriving into Bristol in all their glory, onlookers were also treated to a water display from the historic fire-boat  ‘Pyranaut’ who had ‘Spider Monkey’ on board.

LDC’s very own Gorilla ‘Jama’ was on board and is heading to her spot in Temple Square.  If you wish to download a trail map or find out more on the Wow! Gorillas Project please click here.

LDC are proud to support Bristol Zoo Garden’s 175th anniversary with their very own Wow! Gorilla.

LDC’s Hannah and Sophie have just had a sneaky preview and met LDC’s Gorilla named Jama (‘Jahmah’) a traditional African name meaning ‘One who brings people together’ . She really is spectacular and her design celebrates the natural, vibrant and cultural diversity of Bristol.

For ten weeks from 6th July 2011, Jama will be one of 60 life-size gorilla sculptures that will inhabit and animate the streets of Bristol. The project aims to highlight the significant conservation threat facing wild gorillas and how the Bristol business community can make a difference. It also aims to raise significant funds to support gorilla conservation projects and Bristol charity Wallace and Gromit’s Grand Appeal which is LDC Bristol’s regional charity.

Jama will be on display in LDC ‘s Bristol office for a week on Monday 27th June (can’t wait for her to join our team meeting!!) and from 6th July she can be found in Temple Square.

On 11 March 2011, LDC Director Ken Hills was part of a 13-member team to complete the 5,895metre trek to reach the peak of the world’s tallest freestanding mountain, Kilimanjaro.

For seven days the team lived out of backpacks, slept under canvas in five climate zones and clocked between six to eight hours of walking everyday. They reached the peak at around 8am on the 11th, following a hellish nine hour walk in absolute darkness, eerie silence and bitterly cold winds!

LDC portfolio company Chem-Dry arranged the challenge which was their biggest ever charity event. The trek has raised over £7,500 for Chem-Dry’s charity of the year ‘Asthma UK’.  Asthma UK works with people with asthma, health professionals and researchers to develop and share expertise to help people increase their understanding and reduce the effect of asthma in their lives.

After the event, Ken Hills said “Climbing Kilimanjaro is quite a challenge, it has been stunning, very cold and very hard but the feeling of accomplishment when you reach the peak is like nothing else emphasised by the fact we have raised so much money for such a great cause.”

It is not too late to donate for their achievement and Asthma UK by Clicking Here.

Note to Editors – Chem-Dry is one of the UK’s leading carpet & upholstery cleaning companies. With over 150 locally based carpet cleaning & fire and flood restoration franchises serving the UK and over 4,000 locations globally. For more information on Asthma UK – visit www.asthma.org.uk.