The staff at Pound Gates have pledged to take 11 million steps in January in Step Up 4 Soma Leo, The Pound Gates Lockdown Steps Challenge.
With a new lockdown in place, we recognise the importance of helping our staff to look after their physical and mental wellbeing, and so we have set up this challenge to help keep our staff active. 60 of our staff, across our businesses, have signed up to take part throughout January.
The challenge is deliberately simple to ensure all lockdown rules are met. Each person has pledged how many steps they will take and they are free to achieve them in the way that suits them best. That could be working out to exercise videos, running around after children while home-schooling, and/or taking advantage of the exercise window to get outside and enjoy some fresh air. The personal pledges made by the participants add up to 11 million steps.
Not only are we keeping fit during January, we are also raising funds for The Soma Leo Foundation, which provides education and support to disadvantaged communities in east Africa. This is achieved through its own school The Soma Leo Academy, in Nyiera, Kenya and by supporting other schools in nearby Osieko.
The school fully re-opened to all 200 pupils in January, and after a year without any fundraising activity, the £5,000 fundraising target is much needed as the staff in Kenya are working hard to adapt to the new Government guidelines, which is challenging and expensive.
The directors and managers of Pound Gates are involved with the charity either as Trustees or by providing all of the administrative resources the charity requires.
Dave Collins, Client Services Director at Pound Gates and Trustee for The Soma Leo Foundation said: “At a time when our teams can’t physically be together, this challenge gives us an opportunity to still come together and do something good for ourselves whilst in turn Doing Good for the charity which our staff have supported since its inception in 2015.”
The Challenge can be followed on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram (#StepUp4SomaLeo).
Find out more, along with details of how to support the teams at here.
