WCF – Coast to Coast Corporate Challenge 2024
Members of the Executive Board at WCF are challenging themselves to walk, swim or run 171 miles each – the equivalent of the coast to coast over the course of 6 weeks, to raise money for rural communities in Cumbria.
The Coast-to-Coast Corporate Challenge 2024 is organised by the Cumbria Community Foundation to celebrate their 25th anniversary.
Jo Ritzema, Managing Director said: “WCF are long-standing supporters of the Foundation and wanted to do something to support them in their anniversary year. With the Executive Board already sharing their own Strava group, this walk, swim or run charity challenge seemed like the perfect activity to do.
“We established the group to challenge us all to be more active and viewing our individual activities keeps us all connected as we travel round the country to the various WCF businesses.
“There is also an element of healthy competition so, hopefully, this will sustain us as we strive to be top of our leader board. We encourage walk and talk meetings so there will be plenty of those during the month of June. We are aiming to raise at least £1,000 and WCF will match what we raise supporting the Foundation even further.”
You can sponsor Jo and the team at https://cumbriafoundation.enthuse.com/pf/jo-ritzema
London Marathon success for Greenarc’s James
James Johnson, Client Manager at Greenarc, the Halifax-based business that supports customers with the move towards clean energy, has recently completed the London Marathon.
Completing the London Marathon in a time of 3 hours 25 minutes, James was raising money for Hope for Children. Greenarc was incredibly proud to sponsor James and to contribute to his fundraising efforts.
James said: “I’m still absolutely buzzing after conquering the London Marathon! Huge thanks to Greenarc for their incredible support and sponsorship. It meant the world to be able to raise vital funds for Hope for Children.
“I’m so grateful to my colleagues, friends, and family for their generous donations – together we smashed the target! Here’s to making a difference!”
Congratulations James!
WCF North East – proudly supporting Andy’s Man Club
WCF North East, the Peterlee-based distributor, is incredibly proud to be supporting Andy’s Man Club, a charitable organisation that coordinates weekly peer- to-peer support groups for men in the UK. It aims to help and improve mental health in men through self-help peer-to-peer interaction. All groups are free to attend with no registration required.
The club was founded after the death by suicide of Andy Roberts who gave no indication to his family that he was suicidal so his brother-in-law, Luke Ambler, and mother, Elaine Roberts, founded Andy’s Man Club in the hope men who struggle to open up would have a safe space to do so.
The first session ran in Halifax in 2016, with 9 men in attendance. The groups all follow the same model and are now available in hundreds of locations nationwide – from Plymouth to Aberdeen. The charity aims to have a location within 30 minutes travel of any man in the UK.
Natalie Grogan, Internal Sales Coordinator, at WCF North East, who highlighted the work Andy’s Man Club is doing and wanted to promote the charity said: “I am extremely proud that WCF Fuels North East are supporting Andy’s Man Club. As fuel distributors, our wagons are out on the road all day supplying to building sites, factories, farms, and domestic properties. By helping to spread the word and raise awareness of Andy’s Man Club and men’s mental health then we can hopefully reach out to anyone who might need this support.”
Lucas from Andy’s Man Club added: “We are extremely grateful to WCF North East for their decision to place Andy’s Man Club logos on the decals of their fuel wagons.
“As a donation-led charity, we prioritise the money we receive for opening new groups and ensuring existing groups run smoothly, we do not budget for external advertising. The fact that WCF have very generously created what are in effect mobile billboards advertising our service is fantastic.
Who knows who will see this when the wagons are out and about, it could be somebody who just needs a nudge to access support and turn their life and situation around.”
To find out more email: info@andysmanclub.co.uk or visit www.andysmanclub.co.uk
Craggs Energy – Lee completes the Manchester Marathon!
Craggs Energy, the West Yorkshire-based distributor, is proud of their driver Lee Westwell for completing the Manchester Marathon. Lee, a driver at the Craggs Energy’s Padiham depot, took part in the marathon on the 14th April without any preparation!
Lee explains more: “This was my 2nd Manchester Marathon in a row but this time as a club runner for Clayton-le-Moors Harriers. I completed the marathon in 5 hours 6 seconds.
“It’s not the world’s fastest time but I didn’t do any training. I took a free place due to a fellow club runner getting injured at the last minute so I only knew I was running the marathon 5 days before the race!”
MechTronic – charity Three Peaks Challenge
Ben Firth, Sales Engineer at MechTronic Ltd, is continuing to raise money for local charities in 2024. At the end of May, Ben will be completing the Three Peaks Challenge!
Ben explained more about his plans: “On May 31st, I will set off on a weekend challenge. I will be climbing the National 3 Peaks hoping to raise valuable funds for The Matthew22 Fund.
“The Matthew22 Fund was set up in October 2023 to raise vital funds for selected charities in memory of Matthew Hollingworth who sadly passed away from bone cancer on the 16th February 2022.
“Initially set up as a special fund for the Bone Cancer Research Trust, we have raised over £30,000 for charitable causes. One of the charities that Matthew22 raises funds for is the Childhood Eye Cancer Trust (CHECT), which is the charity I fundraised for last year and continue to support personally.
“To donate to my fundraiser this year, please visit justgiving.com/ page/benfirth-3peaks and to learn more about the Matthew22 Fund and Matthew’s story, please visit matthew22.org.uk
Good luck to Ben. We’ll let you know how he gets on!
Centre Tank Services Ltd – welcoming a new General Manager
Centre Tank Services is delighted to introduce new General Manager, Harkesh Bains.
Lauren Cordelle, Creative Marketing Executive at CTS, said: “We would like to give a big warm welcome to Harkesh Bains, or Kesh to you and me, who has recently joined the team as General Manager.
“He has over 20 years’ experience in senior management with a background in managing sales and operations teams in retail, B2B and the automotive industries for businesses such as Vodafone and V12.
“Harkesh was employed after Gurdeep, our previous Sales Manager, moved to Saudi Arabia to start our Middle East division. With the CTS group growing through acquisitions, the role was developed into a General Manager role to take on some more of the day-to-day commercial functions from MD Matthew Terry.
“If you’re a customer or supplier and haven’t yet met with Kesh, we expect you will see him at a meeting or trade show soon!”
Harkesh added: “I am thrilled to have joined CTS as General Manager, the team has been so welcoming. I’ve been out to meet with many customers and suppliers to get their feedback on products and their business needs, as well as working with my new team to develop procedures and our goals going forward.
“I can’t believe how much I’ve learnt about the fuel industry in such a short amount of time! I am excited to contribute to our growth plans and further cement CTS’s position as a leader in the industry.”
Welcome to the industry Kesh!
Craggs Energy – fresh fruit for everyone!
Craggs Energy, the West Yorkshire-based distributor, would like to say thank you to Emily Yates, Operations and Transport Manager, for her excellent idea! Emily has introduced a weekly fresh fruit delivery for the offices and depots at Craggs.
Emily said: “I was excited to implement this new idea for the Craggs family, and this week we had our first delivery of fresh fruit for the offices and depots.
“It has gone down a treat so far and it is great to be able to provide healthy snacks to keep us all going during the busy days in the office and out on the road!”
What a great idea!
Rix set to conquer the Three Peaks for charity
A team from Rix K9 Fuels, the Gainsborough-based distributor, is looking to go that extra mile for charity by raising more than £5,000 for the Lincs & Notts Air Ambulance by completing the national Three Peaks Challenge of climbing the UK’s three highest peaks – Ben Nevis in Scotland, Scafell Pike, England, and Snowdon in Wales – in under 24 hours.
Not only must they summit and descend all three mountains within the time limit to be successful; they will also have to complete a drive of more than 460 miles from the north of Scotland to North Wales.
The challenge has been organised by Craig Belshaw, Account Manager at Rix K9 Fuels. Craig is a seasoned marathon runner and hill walker and was keen to support the air ambulance after meeting with the crew and finding out more about how they operate.
Craig said: “As a business, we’ve long supported Lincs & Notts Air Ambulance but that has mainly been through displaying their logo on the back of our tankers and shaking a bucket at local agricultural shows.
“I recently met with the crew and found out it costs £4,000 for each call out. The service gets no government funding, so relies on donations from individuals and businesses to carry out the amazing works it does.
“Hearing this made me want to do more serious fundraising for the service and we settled on trying to complete the National Three Peaks.”
The team includes representatives from Rix K9 Fuels, part of the Hull-based national fuel supplier Rix Petroleum – as well as other businesses including the Lindum Group and ABP.
Initially, they had a target of raising £4,000 which would be enough to pay for one mission, but an influx of early donations has prompted the team to want to smash through the £5,000 barrier.
Supporting a local charity
Rix K9 Fuels provides agricultural fuels and lubricants to scores of farmers across Lincolnshire and Nottinghamshire, and it is these people, Craig said, who rely on the air ambulance service the most.
“The road network around us is not great. It’s all minor roads and B-roads, so if a farmer has an accident, their best bet is the air ambulance because it can land in a field,” he said.
“That means it is vital we have this service here. The crew are amazing, they can do open-heart surgery by the side of the road if they have to – whatever it takes to ensure people get the critical care they need. We should all be very proud of them and support them as much as we can.” Lincs & Notts Air Ambulance Corporate Partnerships Manager, Joe Harper, said: “We are incredibly grateful to Craig and his team for supporting us by taking on this incredible challenge.
“The first three months of 2024 have been our busiest start to a year on record. And we know the demand for our service will continue to increase as the days get longer.
“We will need £13 million this year to keep our helicopter in the sky and our fleet of critical care cars on the road, providing a 24/7, 365 days a year service. As we receive no Government funding, we really do rely on our local communities and businesses in Lincs & Notts like Rix K9 Fuels to support our work.”
The team will be undertaking the challenge on Friday 24th May. If you would like to donate to Rix K9 Fuel’s National Three Peaks Challenge, visit https://www.justgiving.com/page/rix-3-peaks.
Send your latest news to claudia@fueloilnews.co.uk or margaret@fueloilnews.co.uk
Image credit: WCF
