After receiving some good news lately (see my previous entries), I started thinking that I could really get used to this! And I was right: my work has asked all staff to come up with volunteering ideas as a ‘team building/social contribution’ project on or around Make a Difference Day (30 October 2010). I think quite a few people replied with varied suggestions and so did I, proposing we help the National Eczema Society (NES) promote their helpline and services in Edinburgh (as I am a member).

Last Friday, I checked my emails on my blackberry, this evil little machine which makes sure you still do some work on your days off! I was surprised and delighted to see that my employers have picked my idea and are already setting up teams to help me promote NES in a few months time! In fact, I got so excited that I couldn’t stop thinking about it all evening and was trying to work out a ‘route’ to go and distribute leaflets, in the city centre’s public places!

I then phoned up the lovely ladies at NES to tell them the good news and they were very appreciative of my company’s input. They will send me all the material needed next month and I hope that the event will be covered in their ‘local news’ web page to encourage other companies to do so.

This really is a win/win situation: staff is happy to go out and do something useful, Directors are happy to do some team building and some good (along with getting nice publicity!), NES is happy to get promoted… and I am over the moon when I think of families picking up the leaflets, phoning the helpline and getting some support that they didn’t even know existed.