Gripple Staff Smash their Charity Target for One Charity

11th March 2019

When staff at Gripple, Sheffield-based manufacturer, totted up the amount raised for their chosen Charity of the Year 2018 they were delighted to find that the total was more than £9,000 - almost double their target in aid of the city-based Ethel Trust.

The Ethel Trust runs a community barge, moored in the Victoria Quays in Sheffield city centre, which provides life changing experiences for a diverse range of community groups. A team of dedicated volunteers run free canal trips for children and adults with special needs - those with severe disabilities, young people with autism, the elderly and those with mobility problems and wheelchair users. At Gripple the money was raised by a myriad of individual and group fundraising activities which ran throughout the year with aim of raising £5,000 which would have provided 25 day trips on Ethel! The fundraising list was extensive, including the company's first Summer Fair; three men facing the gruelling North Yorkshire Tough Mudder Challenge; a mixed group of 15 completing the 24 mile 3 Peaks Challenge and there were numerous raffles, events, sales, solo runs, competitions and even a sports day! Tim Miskell, one of Ethel's qualified skippers, commented: -Everything we do at Ethel is only possible through huge amounts of generous goodwill of so many people such as those at Gripple. Everyone at Ethel felt quite humbled by the enormous effort, large and small, by so many at Gripple. Undoubtedly there was some blood, sweat and I am sure many tears, to raise so much money for the Ethel Trust. What a wonderful group of people they are. Fundraising for Gripple's 2019 Charities of the Year - Whirlow Hall Farm Trust and the Jessop Hospital Bereavement Unit - is already well underway. Ethel Trust is a unique charity formed in 1988 of around 40 volunteers, with the aim of providing education, leisure and well-being, with a unique touch of magic to vulnerable and marginalised groups, through the provision of day and residential outings on our purpose built fully accessible wide beam barge, Ethel.