Comments (0)

By Alex, July 28, 2011 1:21 pm

A high-flying Kent hot air balloon pilot is celebrating another happy landing – but this time it’s the arrival of a cuddly four-legged new born with a famous name.

When Damon Bridger, from Gillingham, isn’t taking people on champagne balloon rides over Kent for Virgin Balloon Flight, he’s busy with his other unusual occupation; breeding and rearing alpacas. Damon, 50, and partner Clare West bought their first two alpacas two years ago with plans to breed more and sell them or to use their soft fleeces for wool products.

They set up Great Oak Farm Alpacas near Maidstone and now have six of the animals including the recent new addition, a black coloured baby or ‘cria’ which they’ve called Richard, after famous entrepreneur and adventurer Sir Richard Branson.

Damon said: “We’ve decided to call the new ones after famous airborne adventurers and, having been a pilot with Virgin Balloon Flights in Kent for 15 years, Sir Richard was obviously top of the list.

“The new cria was quick to explore his surroundings and seemed naturally inquisitive, so the name was perfect. Two more cria are due soon and we plan to name a girl after American pilot Amelia Earhart.”

Damon, who has flown balloons all over the world and now takes passengers up from Maidstone’s Mote Park, Wadhurst, Headcorn and Sutton Valence, said balancing both jobs was hard work, but meant every day was exciting.

“Nothing can beat the feeling of flying in a hot air balloon, but alpacas are amazing animals and seeing one being born is always a special experience,” Damon said.

A duck, a sheep and a cockerel were on board the first recorded hot air balloon flight in France in 1783, but despite the adventurous alpaca’s name, Damon has no plans to take Richard skywards.

“It’s a funny idea, but I’m not sure what the other passengers would think!” he added.

Visit the Virgin Balloon Flights website for more information or to book a balloon ride in Kent with Damon.

Comments (2)

By Kirsty, May 3, 2011 6:16 pm

What is the Staff Connection Trip?
The Virgin Unite Staff Connection Trip is a week of hands on volunteering in South Africa with our partner Pride ‘n Purpose, the charitable arm of Ulusaba, Sir Richard’s private game reserve. Pride ‘n Purpose work on a non-profit basis and are committed to the upliftment of disadvantaged communities living adjacent to the reserve. They provide clean drinking water, help to tackle health issues, provide food, build crèches, orphanages and schools and support young entrepreneurs with sustainable ways to generate income.

Each year ten lucky Virgin staff are hand picked to be part of this amazing opportunity. This year the team of ten Virgin staff from across the Virgin Group have been fundraising up a storm to raise £10,000 for project ‘pimp my crèche’ where the team will transform the newly built crèche by building a playground, plant a food garden, paint wall murals and build a tree-house and that’s just for starters!! The team will also be spending a day in Johannesburg with the Branson Centre entrepreneurs.

Fundraising has included lots of incredible looking bake sales, pub crawls, royal wedding cat walk shows (we love you Wills and Kate), drinks and canapés, personal training sessions, South Africa themed breakfasts among many other fun and creative methods of reaching their target.

So who’s in the lucky team of 10?

· Philip Turnbull-Nel, Operations Manager, Virgin Active SA Bloemfontein.

· Janine Kwan, Group Finance Manager, Virgin Management Limited

· Geoff Baker, Customer Service Advisor, Virgin Trains

· Ricky Matharu, Elite Personal Trainer – Stockley Park, Virgin Active

· Toni Waters, Recruitment Manager, Assura Medical

· Nikki Robinson, Change Manager, Virgin Media 

· Karen Hall, Senior Marketing Manager, Virgin Money Australia 

· Bill Longstreet, Pilot, Virgin America

· Jill Fletcher, Social Media Manager, Virgin America

· Shimon Westby, Finance, Virgin Mobile Canada

Follow the group as they go on an adventure of a lifetime…

                                              Facebook
The Staff Connection team will be taking over the Virgin Unite Facebook page from 7-14 May. The team will post daily updates, pictures and videos allowing their friends, family and colleagues to keep up to date and leave messages as they transform the newly built crèche. (Note that people will need to be a fan of Virgin Unite on Facebook (search for Virgin Unite) and follow Virgin Unite on Twitter (@virginunite)).

Twitter

The group will be tweeting daily using #SCT11. Make sure you start following @virginunite.

Comments (0)

By Kirsty, April 19, 2011 6:37 pm

Branson duo hit the streets to spur on over 36,000 runners

Sir Richard and Holly Branson made some noise at this year’s London Marathon to create the World’s Biggest Cheer which spurred on thousands of inspiring runners who have all pushed themselves to extreme physical limits for great causes.

After spending a month encouraging the UK to donate their cheers, the father and daughter team hit a giant buzzer which boomed over 10,000 cheers of support into the air causing runners and spectators alike to stop and stare – the nation’s cheers were all collated to create a collective shout-out to the runners and Virgin Balloon Flights are part of it!

Richard and Holly got involved in this year’s Virgin sponsored London Marathon from the sidelines, the ‘Cheering Zone’ was set up at the 19-mile mark after many of last year’s runners identified it as the mile where you are most likely to ‘hit the wall’.

Professional cheerleaders and live bands were also stationed at the ‘Cheering Zone’ to support the runners and excite the crowds.

Virgin founder Sir Richard Branson said:

“This year’s runners have really outdone themselves and should be proud of finishing one of the world’s toughest marathons. Today just reminds me how the Virgin London Marathon makes everyone better off"

Check out the Virgin Balloon Flights cheers here by clicking on the Polaroid photo’s!

Comments (0)

By Alex, April 18, 2011 7:03 pm

As web teams from across the Virgin Group came together for the first Virgin Social Marathon and launched #tweetfortea, Virgin Balloon Flights staff went stir crazy!

The idea was simple, at 4pm everyone here at Virgin Media Our House relaxed, had a cup of tea and invited followers, fans and fellow Virgineers to tweet about their tea breaks.

In honour of Sir Richard Branson’s love of tea, the best tweets won RBlovesT mugs.

At Virgin Balloon Flights HQ the team were on board and pilot Mark Simmons plus smiley passengers won the prize for the highest tea break (ever?)…

Thanks to everyone who got involved and we hope you enjoyed your cuppa’s.

Comments (0)

By Alex, April 18, 2011 12:42 pm

Hi there from Virgin Media Our House an amazing private members’ club in London W1!

Today we’re at the Virgin Social Marathon where people from across the group are chatting together while Tweeting and Facebooking you guys out there in the big wide world.

We’d love you to get involved by Tweeting your ideas for new Virgin businesses using the #ifvirgindid tag.

You could win the ultimate Virgin lifestyle by entering the prize draw.

Here are Eve, Antony from Virgin Money Giving, me and guys from lots of other Virgin companies, busily Tweeting away.

If you’d like to see more pictures of Our House check out the Flickr page of our friends at Virgin Atlantic VTravelled

Thanks Virgin Media – this place is fantastic!

Comments (1)

By Alex, April 17, 2011 6:24 pm

Hot air balloons, sun, bleary eyes, TV cameras, thousands of brilliant runners, amazing costumes, hundreds of good causes, ballooning bobbies, celebrities including Olympic legend Jonathan Edwards and a visit from the smiley man with a beard – the Virgin Balloon Flights trip to the Virgin London Marathon 2011 had it all!

See the story in pictures below…

Virgin Balloons at the London Marathon 2011 VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

Phew – what a day!

Congratulations to all the runners, thanks to marathon organisers, balloon area organisers, pilots, crew and everyone who helped. We can’t wait for next year!

Check out our top five runner costumes here

If see out balloons bobbing around on TV made you fancy a hot air balloon flight in Britain, come fly with us here

Comments (0)

By Alex, April 15, 2011 8:49 am

As the nerves of those running in the Virgin London Marathon on Sunday (April 17) start to jangle, a band of Virgin Balloon Flights’ pilots and crew are excitedly preparing for big day themselves.

They will be getting up super early to get two Virgin balloons in place at the start lines in London’s Greenwich Park to once again paint the town red and give support to the thousands of runners.

Look out for the Virgin Money balloon at the Red Start and the little Virgin Balloon Flights balloon at the Blue Start.

Last year, Virgin’s first year as the marathon sponsor, saw Sir Richard Branson running the race dressed as a butterfly and Holly and Sam Branson joining Princess Beatrice in a caterpillar which raised huge amounts of charity cash, so who knows what could be in store this year. Our balloon team will be tweeting their experiences from the race during the day.

Pilot Mark Simmons, who will be in charge of one of the balloons, said: “I tethered a balloon at the marathon last year and it was a fantastic day. It’s amazing to see how many people are up for the race and raising so much money for good causes. We’ll be cheering them on from the balloon basket!”

See our pictures from last year’s Virgin London Marathon

Don’t forget that Virgin Money, Richard Branson and his daughter Holly are hoping to establish a Guinness World Record for the LOUDEST CHEER at the Virgin London Marathon this year. By recording a cheer on their YouTube channel you could win £100 for your chosen charity.

Give your cheer here!

Comments (0)

By Eve, April 14, 2011 3:57 pm

Not unaccustomed to all-time firsts, several members of staff from across the Virgin group will be coming together on Monday 18^th April 2011 under one very groovy roof to take part in the first ever Virgin Social Marathon, the very day after the Virgin London Marathon.

With a view to raising awareness of all of our social channels, to give people a chance to win some amazing Virgin lifestyle prizes, to get a trend going on Twitter and to give everyone a chance to participate in shaping how we do things here at Virgin, we will be Tweeting and Facebooking for 8 hours from the very funky Virgin Media Our House in Soho, London.

We’re all very excited about the forthcoming social media day and look forward to working together to create and inspire some fresh ideas. We’re looking to fans and followers to suggest new entrepreneurial ideas so get your thinking caps on…

To find out what prizes are on offer and how you can be a part of this social first take a look at the social marathon blog on Virgin.com.

We look forward to seeing you online on Monday 18th, watch these spaces closely…

http://twitter.com/VirginBalloons

http://www.facebook.com/virginballoonflights

Comments (0)

By Kirsty, December 9, 2010 11:27 am

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!