CEL staff members took part in the Alder Hey Dragon Boat Festival to raise money for the children’s hospital.
What is the Alder Hey Dragon Boat Festival?
Alder Hey Children’s Hospital host the Dragon Boat Festival each year to raise money for the hospital. This year, the donations went towards their Surgical Neonatal Appeal.
Despite paddling backwards at certain points and placing second to last, CEL Solicitors successfully raised over £1020 for Alder Hey Charity through our Easter bake sale, an office raffle, and our participation in the dragon boat race.
Our JustGiving page is still open for donations here.
Through the fundraising efforts of businesses across Liverpool, Alder Hey Hospital reached an incredible £40,000. All of us at CEL Solicitors are delighted to have contributed to such a great cause.
Staff Takeaways
Our staff thoroughly enjoyed taking part in the Dragon Boat Festival and working as a team to raise money for an important cause. Read what they had to say here:
“The Dragon Boat race was simply amazing! We arrived early and were generously given a free breakfast. After socialising, the event started at 9am where we received safety briefings on what to expect. Following this, a welcome talk was delivered, and each team were introduced – receiving lots of applause and cheers.
We raced first, and after being suited up, we all got into the boat. The supervisor then showed us techniques for how to best paddle and explained what we need to do. It was truly a team effort where we all chanted over and over “1, 2, 1, 2” – paddling on the beat of the drum and the numbers.
In between races, some of us got free face painting from charities, there was a BBQ and plenty of time for socialising in the sun. Overall, it was a fantastically organised event with lots of fun and laughter.” — Demi (Fraud Paralegal)
““Rowing is a simple sport stuffed up by experts” – Roger Moore
I think the majority of us first had a fear of being the second group in history to go overboard. When we realised that the boat was stable, we all become experts! It was a fun day with great people, great charity and next year we are there to win!” — Stephen (Head of First Response)
Having the amazing opportunity to take part in the Dragon Boat race this weekend and raising money for Alder Hey Children’s Charity has been an absolute pleasure. Being able to hop on a boat and paddle in the Crosby Marina does not happen often for me and the experience was so fun. It felt like a memory I will cherish for a long time and the cause behind it made it even better.
All of the teams were so friendly and amazing. We had the chance to meet so many people and socialise as well as feel like little kids again doing activities out in the water.
Getting out of my comfort zone proved to be very rewarding.
I already look forward to the dragon boat race next year and I will look to start something similar to that as a hobby, after realising how enjoyable it was. ‘’ — Dora (Paralegal)
“The day was so much fun filled with teamwork and CEL Spirit. Albeit, not placing, we came out winners because we were all able to have fun for the sake of charity. All of us were from different departments within the firm, therefore, we would not usually work within the same teams during our normal day to day schedule. But that day we all came together and showed our teamwork.” — Johanna (Fraud Paralegal)
“It was a wonderful opportunity to be able to raise some money for a good cause. We all showed up with the CEL heart and passion to do the best we could and give it our all. Safe to say we all had fun taking part.” — Dominic (First Response Advisor)
