News Archive: on365 Donate Rugby Ball Signed by World Cup Captains to Raise Money for Rainbows Children's Hospice
November 24th 2007. Loughborough based company on365 (originally called Universal Power Systems) held a name change party for their workforce in which they presented a rugby ball signed by all the past winning World Cup captains to Rainbows Children’s Hospice. Matt Poole at Leicester Tigers kindly agreed to get John Smit’s signature at the Barbarians vs. South Africa match on December the 1st which made the set complete and makes it quite unique.
on365 staff also got the opportunity to meet the original Stig from the BBC’s TopGear programme and challenge him in a full F1 simulator. He gave a talk covering his racing background and answered questions about anything from his views on Jeremy Clarkson’s driving ability to what’s it like driving down the Mulsanne straight at over 200mph in a diesel car. The brother of one of the teenagers who uses Rainbows Children’s Hospice wasl there with his dad and his older brother to collect the ball for Rainbows Children’s Hospice.
Rowan Macmillan, Corporate Fundraiser for Rainbows said, “we were very excited about receiving this rugby ball – it is from the support of on365 we are able to continue to provide the love and care that the children and families so desperately need. We are very grateful that they chose to donate this piece of sporting history to such a worthy cause”.
Colin Richardson, founder and CEO at on365 said, “when we managed to get hold of this rugby ball, we had no doubts where the best place was for it. Rainbows continue to work so hard for children within the East Midlands and we also would like to thank Matt Poole at Tigers for helping to make the ball quite exclusive. I hope Rainbows can raise some much needed funds from its sale”.
Every year, Rainbows has to raise in excess of £2.5million to keep its doors open and only receives around 5% government funding. It is from local support such as this that enables them to continue to provide this very special service.
