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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.

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By Kirsty, July 16, 2010 1:49 pm

For 67 years Nelson Mandela has dedicated his life to fighting for the rights of humanity. His constant commitment has inspired Sir Richard Branson and the team at Virgin Balloon Flights to give something back to our communities through the ‘Mandela Day’ campaign with Virgin Unite.

When a personal video message form Sir Richard landed in our inboxes, we put on our thinking caps and set about deciding how to give just 67 minutes of our time each to make a difference to the community. Watch Richard’s video message here!

Celebrating both Sir Richard’s and Nelson Mandela’s birthdays on the 18^th July, Virgin Balloon Flights decided to go full throttle for two weeks in the run up to Mandela Day. This is how we have swapped our personal time for community time;

• As a thank you for continued support to keeping our county safe we baked cakes for the men on shift at the local fire station. 
• Three litter pickers filled three bin liners in their 67 minutes to clean up local rubbish.
• Wednesday was weeding day and our local green spaces are now looking pretty.
• Babysitting for single parents from a local church group was one evening’s agenda.
• We blogged about a charity in need on our corporate blog page to support their ongoing campaign to get their charity mascot around the world in 80 ways, ‘Clatterbridge’ cancer charity blog
• Using our social media tools we tried our best to spread the word about Mandela Day and how to get involved.
• A donation of Virgin caps, pens and key rings was sent with a fellow volunteer to the children of The Pattaya Orphanage in Thailand.
• We sent home baked cakes to put a smile on the faces of the local PDSA team, the animal welfare charity for pets in need of vets.
• 7 bags of recycling were carted off to the local town recycling plant keeping our ‘Green Office Plan’ up to scratch.
• Bags of dried and tinned food were collected and delivered to Teresa, the tenancy support officer for the council’s temporary accommodation and homelessness services.
• Another cake day with local charity ‘Chairs and Spares’ receiving home baked cakes for helping those in the community who can’t afford to furnish their homes.
• The final day, 67 items of jumble donated to a local Oxfam shop were gratefully received by volunteers Janet, Mikki and Liam.

Virgin Unite’s Charlotte Goodman said: “We are blown away by all the activities that the Virgin Balloon Flights team have carried out to celebrate the 67 Campaign and Nelson Mandela’s birthday. The whole team are fully behind the initiative and have had a real impact in their local community. What a leading example they are; a great example of business as a force for good.”

The whole team at Virgin Balloon Flights have thoroughly enjoyed giving their time each day for the good of our local community; working together we can gain great momentum to make a difference. Mandela Day has been such an inspiration and we hope to be involved again in the future.