Similar to many organisations across the UK, each year Nexus employees nominate a charity to raise funds for and over the past 12 months they have been completing various activities to support Bryson’s Animal Shelter. They have now been able to present a cheque for over £6,000 for the charity following the culmination of the past year’s activities.
Bryson’s Animal Shelter is located in Wrekenton, Gateshead. It was founded in 1947 and has been re-homing cats, dogs and small animals since then. The dedicated team of staff and volunteers look after their animals 24 hours a day, every day, and in an average year they rehome over 150 dogs and 200 cats. The shelter costs over £250,000 a year to run and they rely completely on fundraising and donations to fund them.
Cathy Massarella, Managing Director at Nexus, commented: “I’m really proud of our teams who have spent the last year raising this fantastic sum of money and donating their time and other items to Bryson’s.
“We’ve got a lot of animal lovers here, so employees were keen to get involved in all kinds of fundraising to help this really worthy local cause. Thank you to everyone who donated, took part in activities or organised events.
“Every year we ask our colleagues to nominate and vote on what charity they would like to support corporately, that means we’re always supporting causes that are closest to their hearts.”
As well as fundraising – which included raffles, coffee mornings, quizzes, wellbeing walks, and the sale of lost property, Metro merchandise and cakes – 33 Nexus employees also spent time volunteering at the shelter. They helped to walk the dogs and play with the cats as part of the Nexus volunteering scheme which allows employees to take a paid day away from their usual duties to volunteer for local charities in their community.
One of those who volunteered was Hayley Mitchell, Customer Service Advisor at Nexus, who said: ““I loved my day volunteering, I’ve always loved animals and have worked with them in the past, so I jumped at the chance to spend a day at the Shelter walking the dogs. It’s great that we have the opportunity to do that and get paid for it. I’ll definitely be going back up to do more volunteering in my own time.”
Well done everyone at Nexus.