As the UK went into ‘lockdown’ due to the outbreak of COVID-19, key workers in the Health and Social Care sector found themselves in the spotlight as an integral part of society’s journey to keep people safe and cared for. Going above and beyond on a daily basis, and often supporting where they may have not before.
During this challenging and busy time for our key workers, Excelcare’s CEO, Osman ‘Ozzie’ Ertosun, and COO, Sam Manning, created The Excelcare Rainbow Fund. Together with the Senior Management Team, they donated the initial funds and began a fundraising effort with one goal in mind; to ensure that frontline team members in our care homes were rewarded for their hard work, dedication and commitment. Receiving the recognition and thanks that they deserve.
With an initial target of £15,000, The Rainbow Fund was shared far and wide to gather support, with many donations from families and friends of our care homes, their communities and also Excelcare support office team members, who were keen to support their colleagues on the frontline.
In addition to our GoFundMe page, efforts were also seen from within Excelcare, with a successful raffle being held, raising £698 and Excelcare’s own Head of Financial Operations, Steve Parker, cycling 437 kilometres with his family to raise an incredible £1,195! Before long, we had surpassed our target, raising a massive £20,000 in total!
Our Chairman, Ozzie, had originally pledged to match the amount raised, but after seeing the overwhelming generosity and support from everyone who donated, he has decided to treble our total so that all of Excelcare’s frontline team members received a gift card to thank them for their incredible work during such unprecedented times.
With our Annual Staff Appreciation Week being celebrated across the Excelcare group from August 17th, this has presented the perfect opportunity to combine celebrations and praise with these gift tokens to team members for their incredible efforts.
Each Excelcare team member is being sent their gift card together with a letter from Chief Operating Officer, Sam Manning. See what Sam writes to the team here;
“What you do in ‘normal’ circumstances is tough, but in these unprecedented times, we can only imagine the additional challenges this brought.
“The physical and emotional energy this must have taken is immense. Working additional hours, often short-staffed as your colleagues were poorly from this cruel disease. Caring for others loved ones, working above and beyond to try to keep everyone as safe as possible. Comforting and holding ones’ hand at the end of their life, as social distancing prevented families for being there.
“We just want you to know how amazing we think you are, doing the absolute best with resources available to you and we cannot thank you enough.”
We look forward to spending the next week celebrating each and every one of our frontline team members and their amazing work in keeping the people we support as well as possible. Thank you to everyone who donated to the Excelcare Rainbow Fund, we couldn’t have done it without you!