Following on from last month's news about the Chloe's New Legs appeal, we have heard that the girls from Spirit FM are doing a special sponsored run to raise funds for the appeal.

They are calling it 777 Girls on the Run and the reason it is special is because they will be running 7km in 7 countries over 7 days.  What a fabulous effort - 49km in total and all the driving from country to country in between.

Avantguard are happy to have made an initial donation to the cause and in addition to this, for every new keyholding contract that signs up by 30 June 2013, we will donate an additional £100.00.  Make sure you mention Chloe's New Legs or Spirit FM when you get in contact.

For more information on this amazing cause, visit Chloe's New Legs or Spirit FM's 777 page

We recently noticed that we had a lot of old mobile phones lying around gathering dust. Each year, we negotiate our new mobile phone contracts and a pile of new phones arrive in the post and the old phones get boxed up and put at the back of a cupboard to grow old and obsolete.

We decided to try and find a local charity or company that might collect old phones so we put the word out and within a few hours we were told that Spirit FM were collecting old phones for a local charitable cause.

Looking on their website we found out that this appeal is called Chloe's New Legs. Local girl Chloe Humphrey needs to raise £36,000 to go to Bristol and have an operation that will help her walk again.

There are lots of ways to get involved through fundraising events, donations, collections etc., but you can also simply donate old mobile phones, CDs and DVDs so this is what Avantguard are doing.

Why not dig through your cupboards, have a good clear out and help someone to walk again. For more information about the appeal, visit the Spirit FM website or visit Chloe's website.

On 28th June 2012, Family Investments held a 'Charity Golf Day' and Avantguard were one of the sponsors.  The day was a great success and raised £17,000 which is to be split between Chestnut Tree Children's Hospice and Royal Marines Charitable Trust.

Well done to Family Investments and everyone who gave their time and money to the event.

Following our post in January 2012, Jade Fitzpatrick completed her skydive and raised a considerable sum in aid of Worthing Kids and Dapper Snapper.

We received a lovely thank you card from the charity with a lovely photo of all the kids at the pool.  Our donation enabled the charity to purchase 2 specialist floats for children with Cerebral Palsy to use in the water.

Well done Jade and everyone who donated to the cause.

After reading about the St Barnabas Hospice Inca Trail Team in our local newspaper, our Office Manager Kate requested that we donate a little something to their cause.  We donated through Just Giving and also posted a link out to all of our social contacts in the hope that they too might give a little something.

Here's a link to their Inca Trail page

Avantguard have sponsored Jade Fitzpatrick and a group of friends to carry out a skydive on 21st March 2012 which is World Downsyndrome Day. Jade and the group are completing the jump to help raise funds for a local charity called Worthing Kids and Dapper Snapper.

The charity supports parents who have children with special needs by organising events and activities for the children and their parents, siblings and carers. Jade volunteers for the charity every Wednesday with a swimming class for the children.

For more information about the Worthing Kids and Dapper Snapper, please visit their website at www.wkds.org and if you would like to sponsor Jade, please visit her 'Just Giving' page at http://www.justgiving.com/Jade-Fitzpatrick

We have asked Jade to provide lots of pictures when she has completed the jump and we will post some on our website or in the spring newsletter.

Through the Woodland Trust, Avantguard have funded the planting of new native woodland which will capture and store 6 tonnes of carbon dioxide.

This does not make Avantguard Carbon Neutral, but we aim to continue funding the planting of new native woodland on a bi-annual basis which we hope will go some way to offsetting the carbon produced by our mobile patrol service.

Woodland Carbon Certificate (509kb)

This month, Avantguard provided a donation of £100.00 towards Baby Zak's Star Appeal which aims to raise funds for a new incubator for the neonatal clinic at Queen Alexandra Hospital in Portsmouth.

In addition to this, Avantguard also issued a special e-newsletter about the Appeal and as a result of this campaign, a further £407.50 was raised.  Thank you to all of our clients and contacts who kindly donated.

Baby Zak's Star Appeal is still ongoing so if you would like any more information or you would like to donate, please contact us.

Baby Zak's Star Appeal

On 15 October 2011, two of our staff members gave up a few hours of their Saturday afternoon to help Worthing and District Animal Rescue Service (WADARS) with a street collection. 

Worthing and District Animal Rescue Service

Avantguard's very own security officer, Simon Bradford, has been awarded with a Hospital Star Award.  Simon provides car park security services to the Royal Sussex County Hospital's Oncology Car Park and was awarded with the 'Frontline Support Services Star of the Year' award at a ceremony held at the Corn Exchange in Brighton.

Hospital Star Award Ceremony