December is a time of reflection for all. Here at Neilsons, we have reflected on everything we have achieved in 2022 and are planning for how to do things even better in 2023 for our clients and community partners!
Our amazing team have achieved some phenomenal things in 2022. Incredible results for our clients with a vast selection of five star reviews and a heaving awards shelf to show for it including Residential Property Team of the Year, Excellence in Client Care, Rising Star of the Year for our Aidan Tuohy and Scottish Estate Agency of the Year. But one of the things we are most proud of, is the total of over £13,000 our team have raised for charity this year through teamwork, dedication and giving up their free time – no mean feat when they’ve all worked exceptionally hard at the coal face of a challengingly busy and constantly evolving property market.
Our charity committee put heads together early in 2022 and planned a strategy for how we could help those less fortunate than ourselves throughout the year and support our local communities. As well as partaking in and supporting a number of community events close to our offices in Corstorphine, Bonnyrigg and South Queensferry, we chose to support two important Edinburgh charities close to many of our hearts – the Maggie’s Centre and the Edinburgh North East Foodbank.
Maggie’s is based at the Western General Hospital here in Edinburgh and provides invaluable support for individuals and their families going through cancer treatment in a non-clinical setting. After two years of restricted fundraising activity following the pandemic, their coffers were in need of a top-up! And so, in June this year our staff took on our Miles for Maggie’s challenge: an all-abilities physical challenge to raise money for Maggie’s to help keep its doors open to all those affected by cancer. Each of our 7 teams walked, swam, ran and cycled the distance between all the Maggie’s Centres in Scotland, a distance of 288 miles and we managed to raise an incredible £6455 through sponsorship, a fun tombola at the Corstorphine Fair, a Blaze Battle event at the David Lloyd Leisure Centre and by asking for donations to Maggie’s whenever the opportunity arose! We visited the centre in July to see the amazing work that they do and committed our ongoing support to them and those who use the centre by offering Wills through our Private Client team, returning this December to present them with our total of £6,455 and to assure them that we’re planning another challenge for 2023 to offer our ongoing support.
As the summer faded in to Autumn and the nights drew in, we refocussed our fundraising energy to support the Edinburgh North East Foodbank as we have done in previous years. Winter is often an exceptionally challenging time for low-income families who rely on the support of the foodbank, and this year more than ever with the cost of living crisis, the foodbank has been inundated with requests. They rely not only on donations of food, but also on funds to keep the logistical side of the foodbank going, so as well as setting up a collection point for them in each of our offices, we raised funds by taking on another physical challenge – The Seven Hills of Edinburgh, unfortunately picking one of the wettest days of the year to conquer each of Edinburgh’s peaks! That didn’t put off our stalwart team, who took to the challenge with gusto, and enjoyed a well-earned refreshment at the end thanks to the Abbey Bar. We also hosted a kids’ football tournament, the inaugural Neilsons’ Cup, expertly co-arranged by Hutchison Vale Football Club who we are a proud sponsor of, with coffees and bacon rolls from 888 Hospitality for the supporting parents and more food donations supplied by the participating teams. This 7-a-side tournament hosted 7 teams and 70 local children, a brilliant day out had by all and we look forward to hosting it again next year. As December and our appeal draws to a close, we are proud to say our total including Gift Aid stands at £4,105. The foodbank popped along with their van this week to collect our food donations, but if you’d still like to contribute then our JustGiving page is still open.
In addition to the £10,560 raised for Maggie’s and the Foodbank, we’ve been proud to support many local schools including the annual mental health initiatives at Craigmount High School, plus numerous raffle prizes for local primary schools. Additionally, we helped to raise over £1000 for Queensferry RNLI Lifeboat Station by providing power and facilities for their popular mulled wine stall at our office on South Queensferry High Street. Our incredible Private Client Team have donated their time and work making Wills for people via Cancer Research and Maggie’s and will continue to do so in to 2023.
We’d like to take this opportunity to thank everyone who has donated to our appeals or sponsored our team in 2022, and of course a big thanks and high five to our staff who’ve risen to these challenges and gone above and beyond for our charities this year – we can’t wait for the adventures 2023 will bring – watch this space!
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