The NEC Group’s (NEC, ICC, Genting Arena, Barclaycard Arena & VOX) Byte Night team took to the Barclaycard Arena concourse during a sell-out performance by comedian, Michael McIntyre on Friday 25th September and cycled the entire length of the Birmingham Canal network on an exercise bike.
The sleepers took turns on the bike (supplied by Pure Gym on Broad Street, Birmingham) and completed all 56K in under 2 hours. During this epic ride, the rest of the team collected from the general public attending the event raising just short of £300.
Murray Dickson, head of business relationships for the NEC group and Byte Night board member, said: “The support we had from the public was incredible and I hope we raised awareness as well as an excellent £300 for Byte Night. This was just one of many fundraising events in the run up to Byte Night and so far we’ve raised a brilliant £1500.
“We are so passionate about Byte Night and helping those young people who need it most and we can’t wait for the big night itself on Friday. It will be a great night with close to 250 people taking part, having fun and raising vital funds for Action for Children as part of the UK’s largest sponsored sleep out, it’s special to be involved in such a brilliant nationwide occasion.”
More than 230 people from businesses across the Midlands are taking part in Byte Night, the UK’s largest sleep-out, on Birmingham’s landmark St Paul’s Square on Friday, October 2 to raise money for youth services run by Action for Children.
Companies including NEC Group, Eversheds, SCC, Dell, Xpertise Recruitment, Birmingham Airport, Fujitsu, Hockley Ltd, EY, Interserve, D2NA, PwC, Harvey Nash, Arden Consulting, iStorage, GSA Techsource, Aggregate Industries, Alcatel-Lucent Enterprise, Artemis Executive Consulting, BDO, Britvic Soft Drinks, BT, Civica, Code42, Dimension Data, Deutsche Bank, EMC, Entec Si, ERIS Technology Limited, Family, Grafton Group, Hockley Building Services, HSBC, Integrity Solutions, Microteam, Nowcomm Ltd, Ricoh and Walgreens Boots Alliance are bedding down for the night to help ensure vulnerable young people across the Midlands have a safe and loving place to call home.
The most recent figures for the Midlands show 1138 young people registered homeless or potentially homeless in 2011/12. Only a fraction of the true number of homeless young people are captured by this statistic, as many are not officially recognised by local authorities. It is estimated that 80,000 young people a year experience homelessness in the UK – leaving them vulnerable to violence, mental health problems and addiction.
If you would like to donate to this fantastic challenge and cause you can visit https://www.justgiving.com/nec-group-nec-group/
For more information on Byte Night, please visit bytenight.org.uk or contact the Byte Night team on bytenight@actionforchildren.org.uk