Getting totally wiped out for charity
If you’ve been following us for a while then you’ll know by now that we hold a suitably unique (some might say bonkers!) event every year, all with the aim to raise as much money as we can for a great cause. 2019 was no different, and last week we hosted our very first lab_ wipeout charity challenge!
Taking the typical lab_ brief of ‘expect the unexpected’ to the next level, our fundraising team extraordinaires – Sami and Katie – ran with it. The result was us and 140 of our friends from the industry finding ourselves, one sunny afternoon in September on a sports field in Chiswick, surrounded by industrial sized inflatables and an array of fancy dress, ranging from the bizarre and comical to full on pro-sports team attire. If you close your eyes and imagine a mash-up of the cult TV show Total Wipeout and its retro predecessor It’s a Knockout, plonked into the idyllic English Countryside, then you’d have a pretty accurate picture.
With the sun miraculously making a very welcome out-of-season appearance, 18 teams made their way over to the main staging area, where there was no time for nerves as the organisers threw the team captains straight into a dance-off to get some points on the board. Once that had awoken everyone’s competitive spirit, the teams took on six gruelling (and hilarious) challenges in rotation; jumping, spinning, lunging, grabbing, diving, and shuffling over something called ‘the sausage’ along the way, all with the added risk of bubbles and cold water being dunked on them at any given moment, all in a bid to be crowned the first ever lab_ wipeout charity champions. From the famous ‘big red balls’ and ‘swinging sweeper arm’, each game was as equally challenging and, of course, as equally amusing to watch as the other.
The coveted ‘best dressed team’ didn’t go unrewarded either, as co-team members from Vitra and Clarus dazzled in their ‘beach bum’ get up.
Whilst having fun was, as ever, very (very) high on the agenda, the main reason we were all there was to raise money. This year all funds were donated to a wonderful small charity, Promise in Store, and we’re delighted to announce that we raised a whopping £8,000 through the event!
The money will go towards purchasing an adjustable Potters Wheel for Camphill Village Trust, enabling more of their participants to be able to craft and make products that will be sold through the charity’s website. In addition, it will provide the equipment, training, support and a salary for a brand new role at Promise in Store. This means a young beneficiary will be offered a work placement, where they will be shaping and developing training material for the tasks needed to get the products ready to sell, as well as assisting with the upkeep of the website.
Once this good news had been delivered, post raffle and epic auction for tickets to England’s Euro 2020 final stages game at Wembley, the joyous atmosphere led us to the pavillion bar for a toast or two, before heading back to London, a little sunned, a lot more stretched(!), and maybe with an inflated level of faith in our ability to make a difference, than perhaps we’d had that morning.
A huge thank you to our sponsors; BW, Formation Lighting, Rame, Seven Partnership, Tsunami Axis and everyone who took part, sponsored the event and donated a raffle prize. We couldn’t have done it without you.
See the photos here, watch this space for the video and let us know if you’d like to get involved next year…
The results full line-up:
1st – 21 Construction
2nd – ERA
3rd – the lab_
4th – Core 5
5th – Tsunami Axis, Hunters, Vitra / Clarus
6th – Overbury / Ambit, Orange Box / The Furniture Practice, BW
7th – Muuto / Well Working, Gazeley, Overbury, Rame
8th – Seven Partnership, Mix Consulting, Franchi / Me, him & her
9th – Formation Lighting
