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By Alex, December 7, 2011 3:13 pm

A high-flying 25-year-old has won a once-in-a-lifetime trip to South Africa with Sir Richard Branson to visit an inspirational business-led charity.

Kirsty Mills, who works at our Virgin Balloon Flights HQ in Telford, will fly out to meet the famous adventurer and businessman at The Branson Centre of Entrepreneurship in Johannesburg tomorrow (December 8).

There she will spend time with Sir Richard and learn all about the charity which was founded in 2006 by Virgin Unite – Virgin’s not-for-profit foundation – to nurture promising entrepreneurs, grow businesses and create jobs in deprived areas.

Marketing executive Kirsty is also a volunteer Virgin ‘Insider’ – one of a select band of Virgin employees tasked with making businesses a force for good from within – and won the opportunity as recognition for her work on charity projects at Virgin Balloon Flights and across the wider group.

These included a campaign which raised almost £8,000 for Hope House Children’s Hospices, a series of community events for Mandela Day and a hit squad to help children’s charity Starlight. She was also nominated for a Virgin Star of the Year Award in 2010.

On Saturday (December 9) Kirsty will also assist at the South Africa launch of Sir Richard’s new book ‘Screw Business as Usual’ – all royalties for which will go to Virgin Unite – by becoming Virgin Unite’s representative on Twitter for the day. Follow her progress @virginunite

She said: “Since joining Virgin Balloon Flights in January 2010, I have had some amazing opportunities, but going to South Africa and working with Richard will take some beating. I just can’t wait.

“The Branson Centre for Entrepreneurship is an amazing charity which is using business to make a real difference for people in deprived areas of South Africa, so it will be fantastic to visit and see for myself how it works.”

More information about Virgin Balloon Flights in Staffordshire and around the UK is available at www.virginballoonflights.co.uk

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By Alex, November 14, 2011 2:02 pm

Well, my challenge to do 50 First Times in Five Days for Virgin Unite leading up to the Virgin Social Marathon on Wednesday (Nov 16) is underway.

So far, I’ve been hit with a custard pie (watch this on YouTube), learned some Swedish, had a family photo shoot, made pasta from scratch and rewired a light switch (with supervision from an electrician!) all for the very first time. But this is just the start – there’s a long way to go.

Next it’s a 10-mile run followed by a refreshing ice bath! Having my legs waxed and eating a banana split will be a doddle after that.

Follow my progress on Twitter, on Facebook and sponsor me on my Virgin Money Giving Page.

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By Kirsty, July 20, 2011 5:53 pm

On July 18^th, Nelson Mandela celebrated his 93rd birthday! An amazing accomplishment to add to many others in this great man’s life. To honour Mandela; Sir Richard Branson and Virgin Unite encouraged everyone within the Virgin group to take part in Mandela Day 2011 by giving 67 minutes of their time to their local community.

Excited by the scope of what we could do, everyone at Virgin Balloon Flights HQ got to work on planning an even bigger and better celebration than 2010’s Mandela Day.

Thinking caps on, we brainstormed about all the different ways we could give back to our community and here’s what we came up with:

· We baked and sold beautiful cupcakes raising money for local community projects.

· We collected boxes and bags of jumble items including clothes, shoes, toys, books and bric-a-brac and donated to The British Red Cross, Katherine House Hospice and Compton Hospice. We even managed to get Staffordshire based designer dress agency Hush to come on board and donate old stock to our clothes box donations.

· Senior Customer Service Representative Sophie Ellis helped out family member Rachel to take her two young twin boys, who were born prematurely, to a hydrotherapy pool for the afternoon as community swimming pools are too cold for them.

· We litter picked around our office and tidied up the surrounding green spaces helping to keep the area cleaner for people to enjoy.

· We donated soft toys, music cd’s and children’s clothes to a brand new sensory room at local nursery Earlyworld.

· We collected and sent out 18 board games, a PlayStation, a box of PlayStation and computer games and two bags of educational and fictional books to a local after school club for children aged between 4 and 14 years.

· We mowed our neighbours’ lawns and helped out with gardening.

· We volunteered at local community project Sanktuary giving late night clubbers a safe place to wait for taxi’s or friends (and even gave high heel clad feet a rest with free flip-flops!)

· We gave two local students, one at GCSE level and one at A Level, the opportunity to complete a week’s work experience within the customer service and marketing departments at the company HQ.

· Accounts assistant Cheryl helped to organise and complete a day within her church community called ‘Messy Church’ where children enjoyed a fun-filled activity day playing games and eating ice lollies!

· Customer Service Representative Ryan Laing became a fully-fledged Street Pastor and completed his first night about town, helping to battle the issue of homelessness and poverty giving strength and support to those who needed it.

· Staff donated £2 each for a handmade bracelet by 11-year-old cancer sufferer Harry Moseley through his charity Help Harry Help Others – a fantastic inspiration to us all.

· We even got CEO and Chief Pilot Kenneth to help sort out our donations, don’t worry he didn’t really pack away office pooch and company mascot, Cookie the Pomeranian.

Once again all the staff here at Virgin Balloon Flights have thoroughly enjoyed their efforts for Mandela Day this year. We hope that each little bit of help or support has collectively made a positive difference within our community and we take our hats off to the people who work so hard to improve the lives of others all year round.

Here’s to another superb effort for Mandela Day!

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By Kirsty, February 15, 2011 11:59 am

On Saturday Virgin Balloon Flights set up shop in Telford Town Centre’s House of Fraser store to sell tickets for our Hope House Children’s Hospice raffle.

Equipped with a balloon basket and Hope House banners the team managed to attract lots of generous shoppers. With the opportunity of bagging a Champagne balloon ride for two, a break at Coombe Abbey courtesy of Virgin Experience Days, first class train tickets from Virgin Trains, an iPod shuffle donated by Virgin Money and many many more superb prizes kindly donated by the Virgin Group, the lovely House of  Fraser customers dug deep and raised a total sum of £463!

This excellent result takes the fundraising total to just over £3,700 for our nominated charity Hope House Children’s Hospice which we are supporting through the Virgin Unite ‘Changing the Course’ campaign by taking part in the Virgin London Marathon. To donate please visit our Virgin Money Giving page.

Our marathon runner Sue said: “The House of Fraser customers were great and very generous with their money. We had a fab day selling the raffle tickets and hope to be in the town centre again before the marathon on April 17^th. Best of luck to all the people who purchased a raffle ticket, the draw will take place on the 8^th April at Hope House near Oswestry!”

To purchase or sell raffle tickets on our behalf please contact Virgin Balloon Flights on 01952 212750.

The full list of prizes and terms and conditions to accompany the raffle is available on this blog.

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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!

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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.

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By Eve, April 28, 2010 5:22 pm

Sunday April 25^th 2010 will be permanently etched in my brain as the day that I endured THE most pain, ever, in my life.  I’m sure many novice marathoners will totally agree.

Running a marathon is a full throttle assault on the senses and the body with the mental excitement and anticipation that is the culmination of months of training and the sheer physical endurance that it takes to run 26.2 miles.

This year saw lots of firsts for Virgin, with it being the first ever Virgin London Marathon. Both myself and our friend Bob Fear over at Virgin.com ran our first ever marathons and we had some great support from Virgin Balloon Flights who raised over £225 and £415 for our respective charities; Macmillan and Virgin Unite by holding charity auctions for hot air balloon rides. Thanks Virgin Balloon Flights!

Watch Bob’s brilliant London Marathon Virgin video which really gives you an idea of what it’s like on the day, what to expect and makes you realise that you can do it too!
Virgin Balloon Flights also had the very first Virgin Money balloon commissioned which looked fabulous on the day plus a brand new Virgin Balloon Flights balloon which spent the day bobbing merrily at the start line.

Here’s to the next one Bob?

Virgin Balloon Flights' Eve Ashwell still smiling at the end of the marathon

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By Alex, April 20, 2010 3:51 pm

Just four days to go until the first Virgin London Marathon on Sunday and we can’t wait to get two lovely new Virgin hot air balloons out and start supporting all of the brave runners!

We’re tethering one of our balloons plus Virgin Money’s balloon at the start line of the marathon and one person we’ll be especially looking out for will be Virgin.com’s very own Bob Fear.

First glimpse of our new 77-size Virgin balloon called G-VBFW which will be tethered at the London Marathon

Bob is one of 100 Virgin runners who are running the marathon with Sir Richard Branson and this year, as part of our annual charity effort, we have decided to support Bob in his fundraising by dontating two pairs of our champagne balloon flights to be autioned on eBay.

All proceeds will go to Virgin Unite the non-profit foundation of the Virgin Group.  They’re all about connecting people to tackle tough social and environmental issues, using the Virgin Group’s entrepreneurial skills and energy.

A hot air balloon ride with us at Virgin Balloon Flights is a genuinely unique experience as no two balloon flights are ever the same. We’re the UK’s largest passenger carrying balloon company offering unforgettable airborne adventures and here’s your chance to win a pair of flights worth £198 each for a great charity at an amazing price.

But be quick as these lots end on Thursday (22 Apr, 2010 13:00:34 BST)

Virgin Balloon Flights Virgin Unite Auction 1

Virgin Balloon Flights Virgin Unite Auction 2

Good luck and don’t forget to look out for our hot air balloons at the marathon on television from early on Sunday morning.