For a long time, Sophie has loved wakeboarding but has always wanted to brush up on her skills and learn some new extreme tricks that she can show off to all her family and friends.

Sophie entered the Jenrick Experience asking if she could get some secret professional wakeboarding lessons to help her become a pro! And now that her name has been picked out of the hat she can now make this dream a reality.

Here’s what Sophie wrote for her entry:

To set the scene…..nearly every week-end in the summer I spend my days at a lake in Yateley, Hampshire where Chris (boyfriend) and his brother (Phil) own a jet ski and where we all wakeboard.

There is always a bit of competition as to who is better, who will learn the best tricks and who will end up pulling the most painful face plants (landing on your face - breaking the water with your face at 15-20mph - ouchy) - I’m pretty spectacular at these.

I started off being the better wakeboarder (beating the boys) but now Phil has had a few sneaky lessons putting me to shame.  All of my skills (if you can call them skills) are self taught.

My Dad who owns a boat took up wakeboarding about the same time as I did and is better than me… my 53 year old Dad is better at wakeboarding than me!!! I cannot let this happen for much longer!

Therefore I would love to use the money to be able to take some secret lessons to be able to progress quicker and to really show Phil and my Dad up!!

This experience will be a once in a life time opportunity, I’m not getting any younger so the longer we leave it the harder the tricks will be to learn and my ability to be ‘fearless’ will be significantly reduced!  Once I have mastered a few more tricks, they will be learnt for life increasing my confidence and ‘cool-ability’ amongst my Dad and boyfriend’s brother!

The memories I will take away from this is photographic evidence that I am actually ‘cool’ and that I’m better than my 53 year old Dad/Chris’ brother as well as having a lasting skill that will never be forgotten.  I love wakeboarding so much that I’ll be a 90 year old granny still riding (that’s slang for wakeboarding!!).  It’ll be lovely to spend quality time doing something I love and of course learning a skill that without this opportunity I would keep finding other things to spend money on!

We hope you have a brilliant time Sophie and look forward to seeing the photographic  evidence of your new learned pro skills!!

Thank you to everyone who entered the draw. Remember to enter again for our Spring Jenrick Experience, as next time it could be you!

FURTHER RESOURCES:

• View previous winners of The Jenrick Experience

Many such IT professionals are being told that “they have become de-skilled,” possibly due to the fact that they were supporting legacy systems.

There is nothing more frustrating both for a good agency and hard working candidates than finding no suitable roles in this current market place.

As such, Jenrick IT is currently considering an initiative to launch its very own grant programme, which would enable a limited number of IT professionals to be partially or totally funded to attend re-training programmes, to up-skill their knowledge in order to find new work opportunities.

I (Jane Stevens, specialist IT recruitment consultant)  wondered what the market thought of this proposal, whether there was a view on what amount of funding would be appropriate and whether it should be a question of candidates applying to us and then selection either by “first name out of the hat” method or whether some other criteria could be used.

Any ideas on the above would be warmly received.

Please contact Jane Stevens, Jenrick IT: 01932 245 500 - jane.stevens@jenrick.co.uk with your thoughts.

The theme for this year was “What I love about weekends” . . . . .

If you’d like to enter next year’s competition, just send an email to photo@jenrick.co.uk to be added to the mailing list.

For more details on Jenrick, please visit: www.jenrick.co.uk.

Maple Ridge Primary School have counted the last donation box from the car wash which came to a grand total of £134.67! Thank you all who contributed.

This money will go towards equipment for the new sensory area (enclosed safe garden) for the children.

Maple Ridge is a school that works with Children with special communication needs, specifically Autism. Autism is a lifelong developmental disability that affects how a person communicates with, and relates to, other people and the world around them. It is a spectrum condition, which means that, while all people with autism share certain areas of difficulty, their condition will affect them in different ways.

To learn more about Maple Ridge Primary School please visit their website by clicking on the link below.

Thank you to everyone at Jenrick who took part in the car wash day, you have helped to make a huge difference!

FURTHER RESOURCES:

• Visit the Maple Ridge Primary School Website
• Charity and Wellbeing News at The Jenrick Group

Turns out that we’re receiving more and more entries via people finding us on Google, when they type in a search for Charity Photo Competitions.

Excellent stuff, keep the entries coming and remember the closing date for your photos is OCTOBER 1ST 2011.

For anyone who has not heard about the competition, here are some more details . . . .

Firstly, the reason our company does this is because we are committed to giving back to the community in as many ways possible. The annual calendar was another way that we could give back in an interesting and meaningful way.

Secondly, you do not have to donate to a registered charity. The competition is designed to recognise causes that normally DO NOT receive support. So, if you are involved in community Group and non-profit organisations, please put them forward!

The other main reason we are so passionate about the photo competition, is because it is one of the few ways YOU can raise money for your chosen cause or charity, without having to ask friends, family and colleagues. For those of you who regularly raise money, you’ll know exactly where we are coming from here.

So, get your camera out and get stuck in and give the charity or group you are passionate about an opportunity to receive some well-deserved support!

HOW TO ENTER?

• enter our charity photo competition HERE
• send your photos to photo@jenrick.co.uk

We have some amazing news to share - the Maximise Potential Podcast, which has been created and sponsored by the Award-Winning Recruitment Group, Jenrick, has been nominated for the European Podcast of the Year, in the business category.

Please can you show you support by voting (and rating) to give us the opportunity to win these prestigous awards:

If you are new to this website and have not yet listened to the podcast, please read on . . . .

The Podcast, contains a series of exclusive interviews from inspiring people, who all display exceptional self-belief, mental toughness and desire to achieve.

The objective of the interviews is to inspire and educate others by sharing successful management styles, mental skill development, NLP, learning techniques and self-motivation methods - everything people need to become successful in their own life, career and business.

What type of people have featured on the podcast so far:

• Sporting Achievements - Greg Searle (Olympic Gold Medalist Rower), David Weir (Champion Wheelchair Racer), Matthew Syed (Commonwealth Champion / Best-selling Author), Dean Macey (Commonwealth Champion Decathlete) & Sam Brown (World Taekwondo Champion)
• Extreme Achievements - Pen Hadow (record-breaking explorer) & Bonita Norris (British Everest Record Holder)
• Business Successes - Nick English (Bremont Watches), Steve Davies (Global Management Consultant), Steve Morris (Morgan Cars) & Abi Cockcroft (Startup Success Story)
• Life & Career Successes - Elliott Cole (Aspiring Triathlete), Tony Dobbyn (Global CTO), Neil McCarthy (SEO Expert), Giles Christopher (National Award Winning Photographer), Jora Gill (Leading Agile Speaker and Global Head of Technology), Kay White (Best selling Author), Fiona Campbell (Leading NLP Coach) & Kos Lesses (Workforce Planning Expert)

How to do I listen and learn more:

• If you want to listen to exclusive interviews from any of the individuals, named above, please click on the following link (and scroll down the list): Listen to the Maximise Potential Podcast
• Also, you can subscribe to the Maximise Potential Podcast on i-Tunes
• PLUS - Join the Maximise Potential Group on Linked IN
  

Thank you for your on-going support and we’ll keep you posted with the Awards - fingers crossed!!

Lee is a two-wheel petrolhead and has owned several motorbikes throughout the years. So he asked if he could go on a 3-day course / race experience where he will receive expert instructions and lessons before getting the opportunity to actually race on the circuits!

Lee Burton has just returned from the first part of his Jenrick Experience where he raced at Mallory Park and this is what he had to say about it:

“My first Jenrick Experience day was absolutely awesome!

I’ve just completed a few circuits at Mallory Park where I raced around on hired supersports bikes to my hearts content!

To start with I was extremely nervous but quickly got the hang of it again and was overtaking everyone on track. I’ve put together this ‘tongue and cheek’ video (please see below) - make sure you have the sound on for cheesy sound effects!

I can’t wait for this weekend now to go and get amongst it around Rockingham Raceway!”

We look forward to hearing Lee’s next update from Rockingham raceway!

Have fun Lee!

FURTHER RESOURCES:

• View the video of part one of my experience on You Tube!
• View Lee’s winning entry for The Jenrick Experience
• Learn more about The Jenrick Experience
• View previous winners of The Jenrick Experience

In all, 892 votes were cast across the three worthy causes and we received in excess of 2,000 visits to the Jenrick Blog, since Tuesday. This clearly shows how passionate people have been about helping these excellent initiatives and how keen they have been to share the page links with others. Thank you all so much!

Congratulations go to Andy North, who won 50.9% of the votes, who will receive £1,000 from Jenrick to go towards his amazing fund raising efforts, which are explained in more detail below.

As part of the Jenrick Helping Hand Initiative, Kevin nominated Andy North who will now receive £1,000 from Jenrick to go towards his bid to raise £50,000 for Forces Children’s Trust and The Soldier’s Charity as he attempts to push his body to the absolute limit.

Starting in August, Andy’s challenge is to run a total of 25 marathons, cycle 1,300 miles and even kayaking 25 miles across the English Channel, in his bid to travel from Catterick Garrison in Yorkshire to Gibraltar - and he’s going to do all of this within just 6 weeks.

Kevin was so inspired by what Andy is doing that he has agreed to join him and run at least one 20 mile leg of his trip, as  he explains below:

“I was instantly captured and inspired once I found out what Andy was doing. Quite a few people know that I was brought up in the RAF as my Father was in  the RAF and as such, I felt a strong personal connection to the charities that Andy is raising money for. However, once he explained the shear size and extremity of his challenge, I was bowled over. I just wanted to get involved and help in any way possible.”

As soon as Andy was informed that his cause was the lucky recipient of the Helping Hand, he sent us the following email:

“Wow everybody, thank you for all your support, it is amazing how companies such as Jenrick Group can make such a difference, I have never met a company with such a scheme, this is a real boost for the “Sunshine Challenge” and will go such a long way in supporting our British Soldiers and their families via our charities. The Forces Children’s Trust & The ABF The Soldiers Charity.

I also wish to thank Kevin Matthews for such an inspiring introduction to Jenrick Group and interview for the MAXIMISE POTENTIAL website, these podcasts are truly inspirational and such a great idea.

Everyone is capable of doing what I am about to undertake. I’m just a regular 50 year old bloke from Yorkshire, with work and family, just like everyone else. If you take small consistent steps, you can achieve anything you want.

Thank you all again for your extremely generous support. “

To read the full account of the winning nomination please click on the link below.

http://www.jenrickblog.co.uk/2011/06/kevin-matthews-andy-north/

It has been a record year in terms of response for the Helping Hand and exceeded all expectations with a total of 898 votes for all 3 entries.

The positive response has raised awareness of Jenrick’s commitment to supporting local communities and charitable causes.

Finally, thank you to everyone who voted and from everyone at Jenrick, we wish Andy the very best of luck in his incredible challenge!

FURTHER RESOURCES:

Please take 5 minutes to watch this video of Andy as he explains the challenge in his own words:

• CLICK HERE to watch a 5 minute video from ANDY NORTH

Please click on this link if you’d like to see the route that Andy will be taking to reach Gibraltar

• CLICK HERE to view the Route Map of the Sunshine Challenge

Please click on the links below to see the amazing work of the two charities Andy is doing this for:

• CLICK HERE to learn more about THE FORCES CHILDREN’S TRUST
• CLICK HERE to learn more about THE SOLDIERS CHARITY

Please click on the link below to view all articles about the Jenrick Helping Hand Initiative:

• CLICK HERE to view all articles about the Jenrick Helping Hand Initiative.

It is that time of year once again where we ask you all to make some very difficult decisions and choose one worthy cause to receive a minimum of £1,000 from Jenrick’s Helping Hand Initiative.

On this occasion we have three nominations which are highlighted below (just click on the links to read the full article):

The Rainbow’s Hospice - nominated by Julie Alton

Julie has agreed to face up to her worst fears to stay the night in a Haunted Gaol in Derby as part of a massive fund raising drive to raise £10,000 for Rainbow’s Hospice for Children. This particular hospice needs over £4 million a year, just to stay open and give the high levels of individual care that each child requires, yet alarmingly 95% of this funding has to gathered from charity fund raising events, such as this. read more here . . .

Brooke Special Needs School in Rugby - nominated by Charlotte James

Charlotte has nominated this a wonderful Special Needs School helps children of all ages seek to better their lives. Brooke is currently concentrating its fund raising efforts on one particular initiative - to build a Log Cabin. This all important facility will give the children an area where they can relax at break times, have some space, and also gain a feeling of independence. read more here . . .

Andy North - nominated by Kevin Matthews

Andy is about to undertake the impossible in an incredible bid to raise an astonishing £50,000 for two relatively unknown charities. He will run a total of 25 marathons, cycle 1,300 miles and even kayak 25 miles across the English Channel, travelling from Catterick Garrison in Yorkshire to Gibraltar - and Kevin has even agreed to join him on part of his incredible journey. read more here . . .

CAST YOUR VOTE - voting closes on Friday June 1oth!

Once you have read each nomination, please cast your (anonymous) vote below:

“WHAT IS YOUR HELPING HAND IDEA / INITIATIVE”

Right, here goes, I have agreed to go and stay overnight in a haunted gaol in Derby, (yes a la “most haunted”) to raise money for a charity called Rainbows.

• www.rainbows.co.uk

I am one of 15 mothers from my son Rafe’s school who are taking part, the aim is to add to the pot of a year of fundraising for the Charity, we have a variety of fundraisers, ranging from people who are running marathons, walking the breath of the country and sitting in baths of baked beans (yes really) and this is my personal input (along with donating money personally and also being on the committee that is organizing all of this)

I have to stress that this might not sound a big deal but when you have a fear of the paranormal like mine, you would understand that this is quite a big deal!!

Honestly I would rather free fall from an airplane at 30,000 feet than take part in this, but this is the activity that needs the most people to do it, so doing it I am.

Still I suppose if I return possessed at least that will give reason to my general demeanor!!

“WHAT IS THE BACKGROUND OF YOUR NOMINATION”

Rainbows is a hospice based in the Midlands that provides respite and end of life care for children who are suffering from life threatening and life limiting illnesses.

In short, it is not expected that any of the children who qualify for care here will live long into adult life, if they get there at all.

Rainbows offers palliative care which means any form of medical care or treatment that concentrates on reducing the severity of disease symptoms, rather than striving to halt or reverse the progression of the disease or to provide a cure.

With Palliative care, the goal is to prevent and relieve suffering and to improve the quality of life for the children suffering from these diseases.

Why Rainbows? - In total honesty, it is because it is the chosen charity of the Friends of St Wystan’s, which is essentially the PTA for the school Rafe attends.

That said, I am not one to support causes that I don’t look into, and that I have, and it is the investigation into this hospice that has led me to believe that I would stay a whole week in a haunted gaol, if it could help the children at rainbows by even an ounce.

As the parent of a healthy 5 year old, I can only start to imagine what it feels like to have a child with a terminal illness (and I hope I never have to experience it). That said none of the parents of the children at Rainbows made that choice, and it made me realize just how easily this could have happened to anyone.

Reading the stories and talking to the staff, I realized just how important the care that the team at Rainbows provides is to these families.

More often than not the families have a number of children, yet the debilitating illnesses of one child can mean that they have to give up work to care 24 hours around the clock, with the more “healthy” children having to take a back seat.

Family outings and days that we parents of “healthy” families take for granted can rarely or never happen as it isn’t possible to pop a child with severe illness and medical needs that are associated with it, off to their grandparents for a day of baby sitting.

As for parents getting time on their own, for a nice night in a hotel, or just to watch a film at the cinema, bottom of the list or impossible.

Whilst most of us parents look forward to “getting a full night’s sleep” after the first few months of our child’s life, many of these parents have committed themselves to night shifts for many years to come.

So the importance of being able to entrust their child into the care of a qualified and caring team of people such as those at the hospice, is worth more than its weight in gold to these families.

It enables them to experience everyday experiences that most of us take for granted.

To quote some of the parents “Without the support of Rainbows, we simply do not know how we would have coped”

As for “the end of life care” aspect of rainbows, honestly I can not even think about this, not only for the team who work endlessly (all of the doctors there hold full time jobs as GP or similar) to support the children and how it must be to know that there is no positive outcome for any of their trustees, but also for the parents who live with this knowledge day in day out.

Recently the hospice raised over £4 million in addition to the normal running costs to add an additional 6 bedrooms, 2 new bathrooms and a therapy suite, specifically because over 18’s are not allowed to share.  Rainbows is now the only hospice in the UK offering care for 18-25 year old’s.  They did this because how can you stop caring for a life limited individual just because they reach the age of 18? And the chaps at Rainbows realized just how little care there was out there for the over 18’s, so they solved it!

“HOW WOULD THE FUNDS BENEFIT THEM?”

The most shocking thing that I found out through my research into Rainbows was this - It costs over £4.1 million to run the hospice each year.

Over 95% of this money comes from charitable donations.  If they don’t raise 4.1M each year, the hospice will close.

How would the funds benefit Rainbows?  Well to quote Dr Clare Hall - palliative care doctor for the last 12 years at Rainbows (indecently one of the longest serving hospice Dr’s in the UK)

“By donating 10p, £1 or £100, you are positively changing the world of a family”

So the £1000 Jenrick Helping Hand donation would be a huge help, in addition, as a group of mums we are aiming to add to this figure, from personal donations and from the other charitable events we are doing.  We would like to raise at least £10,000 for them, so £1,000 would be a brilliant head start.

For me the main reason this will benefit Rainbows is quite simply this.

Rainbows need £4 million PER ANNUM, to continue doing good for the families of the children with these life limiting diseases.

SO BASICALLY THE FUNDS MEAN EVERYTHING TO THEM. DONATIONS ARE VITAL WITHOUT THEM THE HOSPICE DOESN’T EXIST.

AND TO CLOSE, FOR THOSE OF YOU WHO DON’T BUY INTO THE HOSPICE - AND I HONESTLY CANT SEE A SINGLE ONE OF YOU WHO WOULDN’T -  YOU GET TO ENJOY THE THOUGHT OF ME BEING THROUGHLY TERRIFIED FOR A FULL 12 HOURS, AND PROBABLY SUFFERING A GOOD MONTH OR TWO OF SLEEPLESS NIGHTS FOLLOWING!!

THANK YOU FOR YOU SUPPORT

JULIE ALTON