Jewson thanked for £40,000 donation from Dragon Boat racing
Band of Builders (BoB) has thanked Jewson for donating £40,000 from the total amount of money raised from its recent Dragon Boat racing day.
The builders’ merchant chain held its third annual Dragon Boat racing event, where more than 400 staff, suppliers and key figures from the merchant industry raced in teams around the Draycote Water reservoir near Rugby earlier to raise much-needed funds for BoB and another charity.
In all, a record-breaking 36 teams took part in this year’s Dragon Boat racing fundraiser – which was the brainchild of Category Manager Richard Holland from Jewson, who was originally looking at a way to simply bring the Jewson team and key suppliers together post-COVID.
Richard said the event has snowballed, with 21 suppliers and a total of 180 people taking part in the inaugural fundraiser two years ago.
“This year was our best-ever event, with more than double the amount of people joining in and helping us to raise a lot of money for two charities that are important to Jewson,” said Richard.
“Each year, the racing has become more competitive – with adhesive manufacturer CT1 being crowned champion for the second year in a row – but the real highlight was the fact that so many industry people came to support the event.”
As well as the racing, the day consisted of breakfast, a bake sale, a BBQ lunch and then on to a dining club in Birmingham for the evening.
Reflecting on the event and the funds raised, Richard said: “We as an industry are at our best when people come together and amazing things happen.
“Jewson’s Dragon Boat racing fundraiser has ‘grown legs’ and become an annual ‘thing’ that people look forward to getting involved in because there are lots of people from across the industry who come, it’s a lot of fun and we raise a lot of money.”
In the three years, the event has raised £79,000 for BoB and CEO Gavin Crane has been astounded by both the way that the event keeps growing year by year and the funds that Jewson has raised for its charity partners.
“Jewson has been a great supporter of BoB, having initially got involved through product donations back when we were founded in 2016,” said Gavin. “Over time, the relationship has strengthened, with Jewson having chosen BoB as its charity of the year for the fourth year running.
“The Dragon Boat racing annual fundraiser is a great example of how the company has got its staff involved in supporting our charity – with Richard’s initial idea of bringing the industry together becoming a highlight of its fundraising calendar.
“BoB is so grateful to Jewson for the donation because it enables us to continue our work not just delivering life-changing projects for construction industry workers and their families but also making services available and hosting events to address the mental health crisis in the construction industry and signpost services where tradespeople can access wellbeing and mental health support.”