Comments (0) Merry Christmas!
We would like to wish one and all a very merry Christmas and a happy New Year for 2011!
Our customer service team will be in the office to take your calls every day other than Christmas Day, Boxing Day and New Year’s Day. So if you have any queries please don’t hestitate to get in touch.
Best wishes
Everyone at Virgin Balloon Flights x
www.virginballoonflights.co.uk
So we’re just 115 days away from Sue’s 26.2 mile slog in aid of Hope House Children’s Hospices at the 2011 Virgin London Marathon and the money is starting to trickle in. Despite the bad weather Sue’s training is continuing to push her fitness levels up and she has not been put off track with her marathon preparation.
After a visit to Hope House to see how her hard work will pay off, Sue’s determination is sky high and the treadmill is feeling her feet as a result of it. With our £10,000 target in mind, Sue explains why she is so committed to reaching it …
“Well, £10,000 will provide funding for a whole year for special group trips out for the children staying at the hospices to get to different kinds of events, to the likes of visits to the zoo and to parks. This will also include travel to and from the
hospices and also for the nurses and carers to accompany the children on these trips. So far I have quite a lot lined up to help raise as much money as possible, and I’ve only just begun.”
To do your bit to help families make the most of the short precious lives of the children at Hope House, simply visit Sue’s fundraising page at Virgin Money Giving and keep up to date with her training and fundraising on the Virgin Marathon Girl blog.
Two high-flying Virgin Balloon Flights staff have been praised by Sir Richard Branson at a glitzy awards night in London.
Marketing Executive Kirsty Mills was shortlisted out of nominations from around the Virgin Group for Richard’s special community award for the Mandela Day campaign she organised earlier in the year.
And Customer Service Representative Ben Heathcote was voted Virgin Balloon Flights’ Star of the Year after recently winning the accolade of West Midlands Customer Champion from the National Institute of Customer Service.
Both enjoyed a fantastic presentation night at Virgin Limited Edition’s Kensington Roof Gardens Last month where they met Sir Richard and daughter Holly.
Ben and guest Allan meet Sir Richard and Holly Branson
Kirsty and partner Adam meet Sir Richard and Holly Branson
Kirsty, who lives near Wolverhampton, organised collections of cash and unwanted goods for charities such as Oxfam from colleagues and staff at other businesses, did a litter-pick to clean-up local green spaces, went on an office recycling drive and even made cup cakes to thank town firemen for their bravery. She also arranged a collection to buy food for women who were residents in a council safe house and spent an emotional afternoon meeting them and hearing their stories.
“The presentation night was incredible and meeting Sir Richard and his daughter Holly is something I’ll never forget. He’s a total inspiration and to think he was impressed with something I’ve done feels absolutely brilliant,” she said.
The eventual winner of the community award was a team from Virgin Holidays which collectively raised £189,000 for charity through Virgin Unite’s Mission Possible campaign.
Ben, from Shrewsbury, said: “I’ve been at Virgin Balloon Flights for over four years and going that extra mile for customers has become second nature really. We work hard but we’ve got a great team and have a lot of fun, so winning these awards is a brilliant bonus.”
To speak to Ben and the team call 01952 212750 or visit www.virginballoonflights.co.uk for more information about our balloon flights.
The 2010 hot air ballooning flying season drew to a close last month. But whilst you may not be able to spot our balloons in the sky, there are plenty to look at online. Here at Virgin Balloon Flights HQ, around this time of year it is time to don our judging caps and review the whole year’s worth of photos that have been shared with us online over the year by passengers and balloon spotters alike.
This year we had many that were of a very high standard and we thoroughly enjoyed looking at each and every entry.
From balloons being inflated, to passengers helping to pack away the balloon, to atmospheric mist on an early morning flight to the sun bursting from behind the clouds; we recommend a peruse at your leisure of the wonderful online collection.
But as with all competitions someone has to win. This year the photo deemed the winner by the majority was Jade Homer’s photo taken from Headcorn Aerodrome:-
Jade Homer's winning photo taken from Headcorn Aerodrome
Jade said:
I thought that this photo would be good to take because with sun setting in the background it looks nice and shows a nice spring afternoon.
I like taking pictures of something you don’t see every day. I often get down to Headcorn Aerodrome on a Sunday afternoon in the spring and summer… watching all the hot air balloons come and set up. I am amazed by how it is all put together… when you’re watching it fade away as it goes further and further away and you think ‘I wonder were that will end up landing’.
Out of all the places in the world to fly over in a hot air balloon, Jade thinks that the best place would definitely be Niagara Falls. We’re not sure we’d get a licence for that but agree it sounds pretty cool!
Congratulations and we hope you enjoy your prize of a Virgin Experience Days gift card.
To share your photos with us you can upload them to our Twitter page, our Facebook page or on YouTube.
You can find more information on our Competitions tab on our Facebook page.
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So the festive season has started and Virgin Balloon Flights’ employees put on their dancing shoes for their annual Christmas party. This year’s jovial theme was a traditional children’s party complete with pass the parcel, party food and balloons in a village hall!
There were some interesting renditions on the karaoke, spectacular moves on the dance floor and believe it or not a truly exciting limbo competition. What’s 
more we got our Virgin London Marathon fundraising off to a great start with a Christmas raffle.
With thanks to many wonderful businesses surrounding our Virgin Balloon
Flights headquarters here in Telford, we had a super duper selection of prizes including lovely bubbly and wine courtesy of Virgin Wines , one month’s free 
membership and a gift pack from Fitness First, 3 individual day passes and a back neck and shoulder massage at Nuffield Health Gym and Spar, a month’s free games rental with Blockbuster, a meal for two at one of our gorgeous launch site hotels; Telford Hotel & Golf Resort, a family pass to Telford Ice Rink with thanks to Telford and Wrekin Council, a 6 person pass for bowling at TenPin and a pair of 
premier cinema tickets with Odeon!
At just £1 per raffle ticket we raised a fantastic £206 for our nominated marathon charity Hope House Children’s Hospice. Keep an eye on our fundraising efforts on marathon runner Susan Bowerman’s Virgin Money Giving Page and watch us race towards that £10,000 target. Sue is slogging away at the training now, follow her 
progress on her blog virginmarathongirl.
A BIG thank you to all who donated and to everyone that purchased a raffle ticket, enjoy your prizes. Why not make that special someone’s day this Christmas with a Virgin Balloon Flights airborne adventure? Soar through the skies and see the world from a totally new perspective in a Virgin hot air balloon, simply follow the link to see our special festive offers.
Here’s to a very merry Christmas and a happy new year, happy holidays to all!
Ballooning Events, Christmas Gifts, Corporate Gifts, General ballooning stuff, Hot Air Balloon Rides, Hot Air Ballooning, The Virgin Brand, Virgin Balloon Flights Charity, Virgin London Marathon
| Blockbuster, charity sponsors, christmas party, Fitness First, Nuffield health, Odeon Cinema, QHotels, Telford and wrekin Council, Telford Ice Rink, TenPin, The Virgin Brand, Virgin Wines
We’re delighted to announce that Virgin Balloon Flights has officially accepted a place in the Virgin London Marathon 2011 on April 17 from Virgin Unite (Virgin’s charitable foundation).
After several brave team members put themselves forward to run the whopping 26.2 miles for charity, the lucky Virgin Balloon Flights’ employee drawn out of hat was Customer Service Representative Susan Bowerman!
Sue explained: “I am so nervous but very excited at the same time. I have never run a marathon before and haven’t done any running for over 10 years, so I seriously have my work cut out. My training has begun and I’m aiming to be fighting fit and ready to go once poised at the marathon start line. Wish me luck!”
Virgin Unite’s campaign for the 2011 London marathon is titled ‘Changing The Course’ which aims to encourage runners to support young people and the charities that help change their lives.
The lovely people from Virgin Unite say: “We’re putting extra efforts into getting closer to our charities and really helping to change the course of young people’s lives. We are focusing on helping to put the money where it really matters, with smaller charities who are on the front line of helping young people in the UK”.
So after picking a runner, it was time to pick a worthy cause to support and we had one amazing local charity in our minds that we knew would benefit from our help. Hope House Children’s Hospices are based in and around Shropshire (not far from Virgin Balloon Flights’ HQ) and make the most of short and precious lives providing practical and emotional support to families facing the agony of losing a child.
The Oswestry and Conwy based hospices need £3.5 million pounds each year to continue providing this outstanding level of care. Now it’s our job here at Virgin Balloon Flights to make that burden a little lighter next year so we have set a fundraising target of £10,000 for Sue’s marathon effort.
The cogs in the fundraising machine have begun to turn and we have numerous exciting things planned as we bid to hit this ambitious target and of course we’ll keep you posted! You can keep up-to-date with Sue’s training on her blog virginmarathongirl and you can make an online donation on her Virgin Money Giving Page (the not-for-profit charity donations website).
Watch this space!
Virgin Balloon Flights have been helping two Beaver Scout colonies
in Yorkshire to achieve their Air Activity Badges by teaching them all about ballooning and getting them to design their own hot air balloons!
The Nebraska and Montana colonies for young beaver Scouts aged six to eight years old meet once a week at their York Scouts centre, not too far from our Yorkshire hot air balloon launch sites. Virgin Balloon Flights were called upon by Beaver Scout Leader Judith Partridge to help the children gain their badges.
After sending through some worksheets for the Beavers containing interesting facts about Virgin Balloon Flights and an explanation of how our hot air balloons work, the children set about drawing their own balloon designs having to incorporate the envelope, the basket and the burners and then naming their creation.
After receiving the beautiful designs in the post this week we spent a morning deliberating the exceptional competition, cooing over the intelligence of these six, seven and eight year olds. We finally picked a winner … Harry Jenner aged seven, for his ‘Dragon Balloon’ design. We thought he was fantastically creative with his fire breathing dragon idea to inflate the balloon envelope, well done Harry!
A close second was six year old Nathan Watson’s ‘Sunshine Airways’ design for his attention to detail showing the mechanics of hot air ballooning.
The lucky winner Harry is set to receive a pair of Virgin Balloon Flights luxury binoculars, a cap and a key ring. Thanks to all the Beavers who sent us their balloons and congratulations on achieving your Air Activities Badge!
