Again, this event has been organised to raise money for the NI Children’s Hospice, and with the recent news of the hospice getting their government funding cut, they need help from events like this more than ever. Last year we smashed the target of £2500 and raised £4000. We have set a target of £2500 again this year so lets smash that again. To put that into perspective, if every Ryobi employee donated £5, we easily could raise £3000.

Please spread the word about this event and hopefully we can raise a lot of money that goes to a great charity that helps extremely sick children to give them a better standard of life while having to deal with their daily struggles and aliments.

The event is open to everyone, employees, customers, suppliers and all members of the public so please encourage friends and family to get involved if they would like to play. Last year we had 24 players, I hope we can achieve more than 24 this time round.

Even if you are not interested in playing in the event you can still donate money to the event using the link below.

https://www.justgiving.com/page/ryobi-golf-event-2024

Thank you very much in advance for anyone who donates or participates in the event.

Its been a great year for our CSR team and our outreach activities.
Ryobi have been operating in Carrickfergus for over 30 years now and its a pleasure and a privilege to be able to give something back to the local communities and particularly good causes. Many thanks to all our employees and sponsors who helped fun raise for many of these organisations. Its humbling to see how generous people are, despite the current economic situation that everyone finds themselves in. Really excited to start working with Carrick Connect on their planned Connect with Christmas initiative. Our Ryobi Xmas giving tree will be going up soon and some volunteer elves will be on hand to help Carrick Connect sort and deliver pressies to families in need to ensure the wee ones have the Xmas that all children deserve! Roll on 2024!

This programme is open to females living in the Mid and East Antrim Council area, currently out of work or working less than 16 hours a week. Candidates do not require any qualifications to be eligible for a place on the course.

The 2-week, fully-funded Academy commences on Monday 23rd January 2023, and participants will gain:
– an introduction to the manufacturing sector and insight into the range of jobs available
– access to a range of training courses
– personal development skills training
– one-to-one mentoring support
– guaranteed interviews with local employers and in-work support

If you are interested in participating in the programme, please contact Hayley Barr at Hayley.Barr@midandeastantrim.gov.uk or telephone 02825 633345.

The deadline for applications is close of business on Tuesday 10th January 2023.

Elmers Big Belfast Trail concluded on Wednesday evening with an auction of the individual elephants in Belfast Crumlin Road Gaol. The auction raised an unbelievable sum of £121,700 for the Hospice.

Name: Belfast Belle
Created by: Created by: Anne-Marie Byrne

Design Inspiration

A trip down memory lane, Belle remembers the many great concerts hosted at The King’s Hall. Designed by Leitch and Partners from Glasgow, and built in 1933 by J & R Thompson from Belfast, King’s Hall opened in 1934.

On her back, the iconic building has been turned into a juke box, the sides show various albums by a few of Belfast and N Ireland’s most famous bands, while a roll call of some of the bands who played at the venue is shown round her feet. The front shows the Beatles arriving at Shannon Airport in 1964. This is one for music fans!

About the Artist

After many years in non-creative fields, Anne-Marie rediscovered her love of art when the Wild in Art Pigs came to Ipswich. Since then, Anne-Marie has painted for many charity trails across the UK. Her designs include a lion disguised as a tiger, sun bears, flying hares, a prehistoric giraffe, a biker bee, an underwater gorilla, a superhero wallaby, a Monty Python cow and a herd of sporting, magical, nautical and holiday-themed elephants. Other projects include otters for Dartmoor National Park, and a Jaguar car which drove to Monte Carlo and back.

Auctions of Anne-Marie’s work have raised over £135,000 for the various charities.

Speaking on the fundraiser, Rachel Beattie, from the CSR team at Ryobi, expressed her joy at the opportunity to be involved with both the Elmer Trail and the family fun day.  She said: “Ryobi sponsored one of the elephants at a cost of £7,000.  A couple of us within the CSR team then created a small subdivision team to try and fundraise more money on top of that for the hospice.  I organised this fun day because we wanted to reach out to the local community and help other businesses in the process.”

As well as the fun day and Big Elmer Trail Ryobi staff also organised a charity at Carrickfergus Golf Club recently where they raised £2,500 for the Hospice.  Ciarán Maxwell, who organised the golf day said: “The typical NI September downpour didn’t dampen the spirits on the Charity Golf day – a fantastic effort from all the players to brave the conditions and finish the round, and a massive thank you to all hole sponsors and players who helped raise £2,500 for Northern Ireland Hospice.”

All the proceeds raised will provide crucial funding towards the NI Children’s Hospice, enabling them to continue their services within the community helping young children in need.

The Hospice is currently self-funded, making fundraisers such as these even more critical as it ensures further care can be given.

Rachel said: “We know that the Hospice is completely self-funded, they don’t get any government funding.   It costs £700 for one day of palliative care for a child in their home. None of us know when we will need that. That’s why it’s so important.”

Marco Emig, Managing Director of Ryobi, was at the fundraising event, and was delighted by the outcome and support it received.  He said: “I’m amazed by the turnout of how many people actually came to support us here today.   Around a year ago we set up the corporate social responsibility team, and the idea for the family fun day and the charity golf day events came from that team.”

Marco also addressed how the community rallied around the cause, with individuals from across Carrick and beyond attending and donating to the Children’s Hospice.  He said: “We’ve been in Carrickfergus for more than 30 years, and it’s time to start giving back to the community.  It’s really good to see Ryobi employees and their families here, as well as a lot of people here who are not our employees, which I think is really important.”

Gwyneth Evans, HR Manager, also expressed her delight at the sense of community seen on the day.   She said: “We have been supporting the Northern Ireland Hospice throughout the year with various fundraising activities.  “We wanted to take this opportunity to bring all of our employees and their families together so that they could spend time in a social setting.  And also, we wanted to outreach to the local community, so we made the family fun day open to the public too.”

Ryobi did a fantastic job at raising vital funds for the Northern Ireland Children’s Hospice and hopefully this will be an annual staple within Carrick for years to come.