Bell Pottinger North celebrates its 20th birthday

09.01.2012

Northwest-based public relations firm Bell Pottinger North, has raised £10,000 for ShelterBox as part of its 20^th birthday celebrations.

The PR company, which employs a team of 60 across offices in Macclesfield, Liverpool and Leeds, was founded as Insight Marketing by Managing Director, Chris Warham in 1991 and became part of the Bell Pottinger Group in March 2000.

As part of the 20^th anniversary celebration, one charity was selected to receive the proceeds from a whole year's fundraising effort. Already those funds have been used to support people whose lives have been devastated by natural and man-made disasters in Africa, Asia and Europe.

ShelterBox delivers its iconic green boxes globally to families made homeless by natural or man-made disasters.  Each box supplies an extended family with a tent and essential equipment to use whilst they are homeless.  The charity won the JustgivingCharity of the Year- People's Choiceaward 2011.

During the year, team members raised money for ShelterBox through a variety of events including "Ten Go Camping" when ten "PR girls" slept out on the moors in a ShelterBox tent, a 24 hour rugby match, numerous runs, supermarket bag packs, cake sales and lots more.

Bell Pottinger North Managing Director, Chris Warham, said:

"I wanted us to put something back into the world to celebrate our 20 years. I am incredibly proud of the team's energy and enthusiasm in running such a huge range of events.  Yes we raised £10,000 but it was also great to see people working together in new ways and uniting around a cause that directly benefits others..

"ShelterBox is an amazingly effective organisation. It just gets the job done.  Most of the money we raised has already been used to supply ShelterBox tents to families in refugee camps in East Africa and victims of the Thai floods and the Turkish earthquake."

In 2011, Chris Warham also completed training as a ShelterBox Response Team member and is now ready to deploy anywhere in the world when a disaster occurs.

Blackburn-born Tom Henderson OBE, Founder and CEO of ShelterBox said: 

"I would like to thank the Bell Pottinger North team for all their support during 2011.  Along with our other supporters they have enabled us to deliver emergency shelter and vital equipment to more than 15,000 families, in response to 25 disasters worldwide. Right now our ShelterBox Response Teams are working tirelessly to distribute ShelterBoxes to hundreds of families affected by flooding in the Philippines."

"Their support means families who lose everything in a disaster can live in safety and dignity while they rebuild their lives, bringing hope to families when they need it most. "

During 2012 Bell Pottinger North will offer pro-bono communications support to ShelterBox. This will include press office support in the event of a major disaster occurring.