Friday 5 October saw five of Team Tisski head to Birmingham to raise funds for Action for Children’s Byte Night. Byte Night is the UK’s largest national corporate sleepout event, with teams from the technology and business services sleeping out to raise vital funds to prevent youth homelessness. A campaign that has been running for 21 years and growing each year.
The evening started off well, with fundraising games, auctions and some Thai Green Curry to fill us up. We heard from young adults who had been made homeless for many reasons including domestic violence, sexual abuse and the death of a parent. We listened to how Action for Children had helped them and how their lives had changed since they then. We also heard from Izzy, a 15 year old who had suffered from anxiety at secondary school. So much so it stopped her eating at school because she thought her friends would laugh at her. She had then gone on to become a young people’s ambassador for Action for Children to help other children in her situation. The stories we heard (and the bravery of the people actually telling them to us) was a great start to help us understand why we were about to head out into cold, rainy city centre and attempt to sleep in it.
“The best bit for me was listening to Izzy, the Young Ambassador. The way she spoke about her personal circumstances and how Action for Children had helped made sleeping in the pouring rain worthwhile.”
Darren Bassett, Head of Digital Transformation
“Best bit was fundraising and hearing from the children who benefited from Action for Children’s support.”
Mandy Kaur, Junior CRM Consultant
So we headed out
“The worst bit was waking up at 5am in a soaking wet sleeping bag… after the event I felt super grateful for having a roof over my head!”
Mandy Kaur, Junior CRM Consultant
“Great night, good company but from 3:00 in the morning it was sooooooooo cold…. but we did it for a fantastic charity…”
Tracey Morris, Senior Account Manager
“4am was the most relentless, depressing time, when it started to absolutely chuck it down and it was impossible to keep anything dry.”
Katie Shacklock, Marketing Executive
“The worst part for me was actually packing up – not because I was sad to be going home, but because I was cold, wet and tired. Imagine what it must be like doing that day in, day out.”
Darren Bassett, Head of Digital Transformation