Fundraising initiative helps four charities
(L-R) Ahisha Bodden and Lesley Connolly of Intertrust; Minister of Education Tara Rivers; senior school improvement officer Barbara Peace-Ebanks; Acting Chief Education Officer Lyneth Monteith; Shona McGill of Big Brothers Big Sisters; EIP coordinator Darbra Bodden; and Feed our Future chairwoman Stacy VanDevelde
(CNS): An Intertrust Cayman staff initiative run over six months in 2015, which combined employee wellness with corporate social responsibility, raised almost US$32,000 that was divided among four local charities. The “One Intertrust, Give It Your All” programme involved four teams given the task of representing four youth and education charities chosen by the company’s charity committee.
Four staff members – Aisha Conolly, Boris Brady, Dwayne Lee and Phillip Tatum – were appointed team captains, raising funds for Big Brothers Big Sisters (US$9,196.93), Extended After School Programme (US$5,434.69), Feed Our Future (US$14,251.74) and Early Intervention Programme (US$3,054.45).
Over six months, these captains coordinated creative fundraising and volunteer activities to raise funds and awareness for their respective charities. The Big Brothers Big Sisters (BBBS) team raised the most through fundraising, US$3,192.32. Another US$906.15 went to each charity following the distribution of funds raised through staff dress-down days.
The Intertrust Foundation matched those funds, which totalled US$10,157.84 across the four charities. A game day, which concluded the annual initiative, added US$8,000 to the overall funds raised.
Minister of Education, Employment and Gender Affairs Tara Rivers said of the fundraising initiative, “I am very pleased that the children participating in the Early Intervention Programme (EIP) will benefit from this donation. Children are our priority. Donations such as this one from Intertrust will help EIP to better serve the children and ensure that even the most complex of needs are met.”
Pilar Bush, chairman of Big Brothers Big Sisters (BBBS), said, “The Intertrust team really connected with our mission and with some signing up to become BBBS mentors. The generous donation will help us launch our first-ever summer group-mentoring programme for adolescents aged 11-13.”
Intertrust Cayman’s managing director, Marije van der Lindt, said of the fundraising programme, “We are pleased to bring our global charitable foundation focus on youth and education to benefit Cayman’s future generations through ongoing collaborative staff and community engagement. There is a well-recognised proverb, ‘It takes a whole village to raise a child,’ and we are proud to play our part through this initiative.”
Gillian Roffey, operations director of the YMCA, and programme manager at the Extended After School Programme expressed gratitude for the financial support of Intertrust, saying it “directly impacts the academic and character development of nearly 1,500 students in the (EASP) across 14 public schools.”
Chairwoman of Feed Our Future Stacy VanDevelde noted that the charity has partnered with Intertrust since 2014 when “staff members rallied behind our cause, using creative means to help our goal of enriching our school meal programme, thereby reaching more needy children and reducing hunger in Cayman’s schools”. She added that Intertrust more recently supported Feed Our Future’s educational workshops, “which are intended to benefit the children and families we support through sessions focused on low-budget healthy cooking”.
