International Volunteer Day is recognised globally on the 5th December. Founded by the United Nations in 1985, it is a day to celebrate the work of volunteers, recognising the value of the work they do for advancing peace and development worldwide.
The United Nations chooses a theme annually to set each IVD apart and this year’s theme is ‘if everyone did’, looking at the endless possibilities if everyone chose to give just a small amount of their time to volunteering.
Myerson has been proud to support a range of amazing charities over the years and its dedicated CSR committee has raised thousands of pounds annually to support great causes through their fundraising events.
This year, as a response to staff wanting to get more involved with the local community, Myerson took their charity support one step further, giving all employees one day of paid leave per year to volunteer at a charity of their choice. Collectively, the introduction of the Volunteer Day dedicates over 1,100 Myerson staff hours to charity work.
Throughout 2023, the team have volunteered at a range of amazing organisations. In May, several employees used their volunteer day to support our 2022/2023 charity partner, Manchester Mind. They spent their day fundraising around Manchester City Centre and raising awareness of the different mental health services available through Mind. Overall, the volunteers raised a total of £525.87 for the charity.
More recently, team members visited local cancer support centre, Maggie’s Manchester, using their day to learn about the work the charity does and then spend time tending to the centre’s peaceful garden for the patients to enjoy. The team found the day to be extremely rewarding and were proud to have contributed towards such a great cause.
Another cause supported by Myerson this year was The Bread and Butter Thing, a local Trafford-based charity that strives to bring nutritious and affordable food to families, which is more important than ever in the current economic climate.
The team spent the day unloading vans full of surplus food from the charity’s suppliers and went on to package the food into bundles that would be distributed to families in the community. TBBT relies on volunteer work to keep providing low-cost food to local families, with 90% of the charity’s operations relying on volunteers.
Myerson is proud to have dedicated many of their charitable hours towards supporting young people in the local community. The People & Culture team visited Sir John Deane’s Sixth Form College to conduct mock interviews with the students, teaching them valuable career skills that will serve them well as they go out into the world of work.
One of the firm’s Partners also chose to use their volunteer day to support young people in the community, using the hours to arrange a trip for their Guides and Rangers group, taking 20 children between the ages of 10-15 away to a PGL activity centre for the weekend.
At Myerson, we are already planning our volunteering work for 2024. The team are looking forward to continuing to support the charities we worked with this year, as well as finding new volunteering opportunities.
We are looking forward to working with The Dogs Trust on multiple occasions next year, starting in February.
For more information on Myerson’s charitable work please visit our Corporate Social Responsibility page.