Tower’s Corporate Social Responsibility

Tower Leasing continues to support and sponsor organisations and individuals to help them get one step closer to reaching their goals. From local communities to helping people across the world, we are passionate about giving something back to the community and the environment. If you would like to sponsor any of the below, please get in touch via csr@towerleasing.co.uk

Our Volunteering Spotlight

At the heart of our company is a deep commitment to making a positive impact, both through our business initiatives and in the communities we serve. Many of our dedicated employees go above and beyond by generously volunteering their time and talents to support a variety of meaningful causes.

Ben King’s Story

Outside Ben’s role as Sales Account Manager at Tower, he and his family have been supporting The Alexander Devine Children’s Hospice for the past 15 years!

In Ben’s words:

“We were introduced to the charity through my good friends sister, whose son regretfully contracted leukaemia.

It transpired that there is/was very little support for this young family with regards to respite for Mum and Dad in this very stressful type of situation.

Alexander Devine was a local charity and was trying to fill the need of family support, so we got involved.

We play a charity golf day, buy raffle tickets etc, in order to contribute to the new centre that they were planning in Maidenhead.

It started with My Friends Dad who wanted to get together a team or two for golf and a whip-round. We started with just 8 people Playing golf… overpaying for the round so that the surplus went to the charity.

We are now 15 years later, and the 8 people has grown to about 80. We have a dinner, auction, raffle and all proceeds go to the charity.

We are all happy to play our small part – the charity has grown and supports loads of families now.

Alexander Devine provides specialist care and support to children with

life-limiting and life-threatening conditions, and their families, across

Berkshire and into surrounding counties.

For more information, give a donation or find out about volunteering

head over to their website https://alexanderdevine.org/

Mental Health First Aider

Victoria Chambers becomes Tower’s Mental Health First Aider.

“Many people fail to recognise when somebody who may even be very close for example partner, relative, friend or co-worker are going through a difficult time. Spotting the signs and understanding more will help us all to get the right support they or we deserve”.

We can make a difference by creating a positive working environment by putting our employee health and wellbeing first.

There are also many helpline services that can provide amazing support – Please see contact details below:

Papyrus 0800 068 4141
CALM 0800 58 58 58
Samaritans 116 123
Mind Infoline 0300 123 3393

Focus Foundation

Tower is proud to offer its support to the Focus Foundation, the philanthropic arm of our partner Focus Group. The foundation is dedicated to providing support to a variety of UK-based grass-roots charities with the ultimate goal of creating a positive and lasting difference to people lives.

The foundation primarily focusses on organisations who offer their assistance to those most in need, with a particular emphasis on three key themes: socially or economically underprivileged children, mental health charities and charitable or community projects local to Focus Group’s UK regional offices.

If you would like to find out more about the Focus Foundation and the organisations they support, please visit https://www.focusfoundation.org.uk/

EdUKaid

Tower are pleased to sponsor one of EdUKaid pre-primary classes, these are the most disadvantaged children who are desperate for an education. As a sponsor, we will helping over 100 children aged 4 – 6 will have the chance of a better future.

EdUKaid have provided the following sponsorship profile to share with you about the charity and how the sponsorship will contribute to the children’s learning and development. You can find out more about the charity by visiting https://www.edukaid.com/

Click here to read more about our sponsorship.

H.E.A.T. Foundation

The H.E.A.T. Foundation (Health, Education, and Training) is currently working with local charity in Vaniyambadi, South India, and in Mansehra, Pakistan in a joint effort in provide poor children with education. The aim is to encourage them to continue in education and hopefully keep them from joining the “Child labour market”.

The charity was set up by Umar Shariff (previously our Finance Director) with the help of friends, family and colleagues after visiting India and seeing the hardship and poverty that people were experiencing.

H.E.A.T.Foundation is also helping to provide dental and eye tests for the children as well as midday meals (for some this will be the only meal of the day) and uniform.

We all love shopping and by registering at www.giveasyoulive.com and choosing H.E.A.T.Foundation as your favourite charity, you can be raise funds each time you shop for loved ones by going through the giveasyoulive site, without costing you a penny and helping the poor children receive the education they so need.

If you are struggling to think of a gift for someone or tired of buying the same type of stuff. Go for something a bit different and buy a H.E.A.T Foundation Gift card. The gift buys something for the school children, so for example a gift card of £10 buys an eye test for 10 students. The person receiving the gift will find it very rewarding that they have been able to help poor children.

To find out more information on our charity and their gift cards please visit our website at http://www.heatfoundation.org.uk/gifts-that-make-a-difference/

If you have anything to donate to our boot sale please call 07973 190158 or email umarshariff@heatfoundation.org.uk

Aldermore Charity Football Tournament

Congratulations on getting so far in the Aldermore football tournament 2019 ‘Andros Towersend FC’!! All for an amazing charity, raising a total of £13,016 for Headway UK who help and support people affected by brain injury. FootballForHeadway

Tower takes part in Aldermore’s annual charity football tournament 2018, together we raised £13,450!! What a great event and our team thoroughly enjoyed the day, coming 3rd in the tournament! #teamtower

Tower Leasing took part in Aldermore’s Charity Football Tournament on the 7th September 2017 at St Georges Park, Burton-Upon-Trent., in memory of Adam Massen. We’ll be raising funds for brain injury charity, Headway. Working to improve life after brain injury Headway provides support, services and information to brain injury survivors, their families and carers. The funding page has currently reached an incredible £12,175.00.

Passionate about Wildlife

Tower leasing is supporting the upcoming project of the British & Wildlife Reserve on The Green Dragon Eco Farm in July 2018. Their aim is to support wildlife conservation and expand their range of outdoor learning activities aligned to their educational ethos. They have set a target of reaching 250,000 children by 2023, increasing partnerships with schools and charities to offer young people outdoor experiences they may not otherwise have.

On 28th December 2017, the Green Dragon Eco Farm successfully raised £4,726 with 68 supporters in 56 days. To support their upcoming projects, please click here

OperaUpClose

OperaUpClose was founded in October 2009 by Adam Spreadbury-Maher, Ben Cooper and Robin Norton-Hale for the experiment of producing La Bohème at the Cock Tavern Theatre in Kilburn, a 35-seat theatre above a very rough pub. We had no idea if anyone would come to see the show, or even whether opera singers would be prepared to work in such a gritty, fringe environment.

With equal amounts of delight and trepidation, we fielded requests for press night tickets from an astonishing number of national papers (for most pub theatre shows, it’s a coup to get one national critic in), and watched as tickets for the first fortnight sold out before we’d started previews. We’d clearly hit on something – the question was, would the show live up to it?

Since then, our La Bohème has run for nearly six months at the Cock Tavern (becoming the longest continuously running opera in the UK in the process), had two critically-acclaimed and sold-out runs at Soho Theatre, and won the 2011 Olivier Award for Best Opera Production. It is not false modesty to say we have been astonished – ecstatic, too, of course – at the runaway success of our crazy idea.

In October 2010 OperaUpClose became the resident company at the King’s Head Theatre, re- launching the venue as a small-scale off-West End alternative to London’s two established opera houses and opening the season with our second production, The Barber of Seville (or Salisbury). We have now produced ten new opera productions here: Barber, Madam Butterfly, Cinderella, Pagliacci, The Coronation of Poppea, The Turn of the Screw, Manifest Destiny, La Fanciulla del West, Carmen and Tosca (a co-production with Malmo Opera in Sweden), all in new English versions – including, in Poppea’s case, a libretto by Mark Ravenhill, with a new aria by Michael Nyman.

We feel passionately about producing contemporary opera as well as new versions of the classics, so this autumn we launched Flourish, a competition to find a new chamber opera. We were overwhelmed by the quality and variety of the entries and at a showcase of the finalists’ work in September chose not just a winner (Two Caravans by Guy Harries and Ace McCarron, which will get a full production at the King’s Head in 2013) but a runner-up (Katarzyna Brochocka and Gabriela Zapolska’s Young Wife) which we fely strongly also deserved to be produced. So far we have Arts Council funding for one production but not two – watch this space!

In 2013, as well as our Flourish winners, we’ll present new productions of L’elisir d’amore and our second co-production with Malmo Opera, La Traviata, at the King’s Head (as well as two other operas it is too early to announce). We’re proud to have been the first opera company to perform at Soho Theatre, initially with La Bohème, and last summer with our electronica-tinged production of Don Giovanni, and we’re also building a touring reputation, with our production visiting venues from the Bristol Tobacco Factory to the Coventry Belgrade to Bestival.

Writing all this down, we’re not quite sure how we’ve managed to stay sane and solvent so far. If you would like to support us by becoming a friend of patron then click here for more information.

We hope you’ll join us for more opera that is exciting, accessible and (of course) up close, very soon.

Robin Norton-Hale & Adam Spreadbury-Maher
Artistic Directors, OperaUpClose

Fin Howells

Fin Howells has taken the decision to leave home and move to Canada to join the Ontario Hockey Academy at a young age of 14 to pursue his hockey career. We are raising funds to make this happen, click here to sponsor.

Read his journey so far…

From the first time Finley watched a local ice hockey game he was hooked, one month later for his 6th birthday he had his first skates and hockey starter kit and has never looked back since. When he was 10 years old he was selected after numerous trials for the Midlands Conference team, a team made up of the best players in the country including 2 of the biggest clubs in Britain. Finley was selected for the team and given the honours to captain the team; the team participated in a tournament in Holland that consisted of the German & Dutch National Team and the largest hockey tournament here in the UK.

Finley and the Midlands Under 11 Conference Team beat all teams and Finley raised the winner’s trophy in front of a sell-out crowd. Finley has always wanted to play for his country and represent England… He finally had the call up to attend the trials “Quest for Quebec”. Finley has had numerous trials this year consisting of at least 60 ice hockey players from all over England.

This was cut over 5 trials to 22 players including the net minders. They then went on to play 2 games over a weekend against Bracknell & Guildford Under 14s teams to pick the final 15 players and 2 net minders, this was a crucial weekend for selection…

Finley Howells made the final selection to make the prestigious trip to the “World Championships of Pee Wee Hockey” this Tournament is the single most important minor ice hockey tournament in the world for young hockey players (11 and 12 years old).

The young England squad that will be traveling to compete this year are certainly going to get a chance to follow in some impressive footsteps, and they cannot wait. The tournament, founded in 1960, is the most prominent minor hockey tournament in the world. About 2,200 young hockey players from 15 countries around the world travel to Quebec to participate in the event, which takes place over a 12-day span – with crowds totalling around 200,000 fans every year.

To further illustrate the importance of this tournament, just look at some of the past participants who went on to be some of the greatest hockey players of all time. Many stars from the National Hockey League have passed through this tournament, including Wayne Gretzky, Brad Park, Guy Lafleur, Marcel Dionne, Gilbert Perrault, Mark Howe, Sylvain Côté, Eric Lindros, and many others – including Penguins owner Mario Lemieux .

The young England squad that will be traveling to compete this year are certainly going to get a chance to follow in some impressive footsteps, and they cannot wait!