Last year, JT and Macmillan Jersey changed what was an annual coffee morning event into 7 days of activities that brought people together and raised over £26,000 for the local charity. Now in its second year, the event attracted even more support with events taking place all over the island. Funds are still coming in, but the charity expects to raise in excess of £30,000, with over £6,000 coming from their partners JT, who held their own internal charity week in tandem, raising £3,000 which was then matched pound for pound by the company.
The event was initially created to enable the charity to continue with a well-established fundraising tradition during a difficult fundraising period, which has now become a new firm favourite in Jersey’s community calendar.
Steph Gibaut, Head of Income Generation for Macmillan Jersey, said: “It’s been amazing to see how ‘Get Together for Good’ is evolving alongside Jersey’s Greatest Coffee Morning, which so many people still like to hold. The contribution and support from the community has surpassed all our expectations, from the fantastic prizes to give away in our Charity Raffle, to film nights and a special coffee blend, it’s surprising how much you can pack into one week of fun. Every penny raised will go towards the essential work that we do in supporting cancer patients, their family, friends and work colleagues. As a Jersey charity that doesn’t receive any funding from Macmillan UK, our services can only be provided thanks to the generosity of the many local people who support us. After such a financially challenging year, we are so grateful to those that went the extra mile to support us and want to give special thanks to JT who have over the past two years become so much more to us than just a sponsor.”
Daragh McDermott, JT’s Managing Director, Channel Islands said: “It’s truly inspiring to work with a team like Macmillan Cancer Support Jersey. Over the past two years we’ve worked together to create an annual fundraising event that allows people to design their own activity, have some fun but above all, help support those, who support our loved ones. JT offices around the world took on a very different look for that week in September, with all our people embracing the theme and pulling together to raise money, awareness and have a good time. We held 28 independent events, ranging from an online ‘Duck Derby’ to a pop-up clothes shop, and a coffee and cake morning across all our global offices. The icing on the cake was to see Fort Regent glow green all week for Macmillan Jersey awareness.
Macmillan Jersey not only motivate us at JT, they’ve also captured the hearts of our entire community, with so many people and businesses around the island coming together to support this great event, it just shows how we can all be part of one team, united in our efforts to make a difference’’.