- 285 employees don costumes and take on classic 70s obstacles for charity partners Age UK and Barnardo’s in Milton Keynes
- Teams join 40 further teams from across the UK taking part in nationwide event
Santander employees from as far as Dartford, Essex and London came together in Milton Keynes last week to face off in a charity remake of the classic TV game show ‘It’s a Knockout’. The event was made up of a total of 285 employees in 32 teams, taking part in eight different challenges, including a basketball shootout, a chicken run and a human washing machine. This was all done in huge costumes and facing foam, water and other obstacles to raise money for Age UK and Barnardo’s.
Each team was tasked with raising £1,000 to help transform the lives of some of the most isolated and vulnerable older and younger people across the UK. Two other Santander ‘It’s a Knockout’ events were hosted in Liverpool and Bristol last week, with a further 40 teams looking to take the total event fundraising to over £173,000.
The events were organised to raise funds for the bank’s charity partners and help Santander UK reach its goal of raising £3 million for Barnardo’s and Age UK by the end of 2018.
Keith Moor, Chief Marketing Officer at Santander UK, said: “‘It’s a Knockout’ has become the highlight of our fundraising calendar over the last two years. Employees love the chance to recreate the classic game show with obstacle courses, fancy dress and falling over! Whilst it is a great day out, it underlines our commitment to helping people prosper and supporting those most in need. We want to raise as much money as possible to make a real difference for the communities that we live and work in.”
Head of Corporate Partnerships at Barnardo’s, Tara Honeywell, said: “It’s great to see so many of Santander’s employees coming together from across the UK to take part in fundraising activities such as this ‘It’s a Knockout’ event. The money raised through these events makes a huge difference to the charity, enabling us to help the most vulnerable children, young people, and families across the UK.”
Hannorah Lee, Head of Corporate Partnerships at Age UK, commented: “Every year we’re continually blown away by how many teams turn out for these events and we would like to say a huge thank you to everyone who took part in Santander’s ‘It’s a Knockout’ event. The money raised for Age UK will help us to provide advice, companionship and support to older people across the country; people who might otherwise have no one to turn to.”
Last year’s events, held in Liverpool and Milton Keynes, raised a total of just over £80,000 for the two charity partners and organisers have already more than doubled that sum this year, with the final donations still to come in.
Over the course of 2018, Santander is supporting a host of fundraising activities for the two charities, including a wide range of in branch events, numerous cycle rides and an International Challenge, which will see employees travelling abroad to help build new classrooms for the Knapor community in Cambodia.
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Santander UK is a financial services provider in the UK that offers a wide range of personal and commercial financial products and services. It has brought real competition to the UK, through its innovative products for retail customers and relationship banking model for UK SMEs. At 31 March 2018, the bank has c19,500 employees. It serves around 14 million active customers, via a nationwide branch network, telephone, mobile and online banking; and 64 regional Corporate Business Centres. Santander UK is subject to the full supervision of the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) and the Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA) in the UK. Santander UK plc customers are protected by the Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS) in the UK.
About Us
Banco Santander (SAN SM, STD US, BNC LN) is a leading retail and commercial bank, founded in 1857 and headquartered in Spain. It has a meaningful market share in 10 core countries in Europe and the Americas, and is the largest bank in the euro zone by market capitalization. At the end of 2017, Banco Santander had EUR 986 billion in customer funds (deposits and mutual funds), 133 million customers, 13,700 branches and 200,000 employees. Banco Santander made attributable profit of EUR 6,619 million in 2017, an increase of 7% compared to the previous year.
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