27th May 2020
Every year, the team at FPE Capital completes a challenge to support a people-focussed charity close to our hearts. This year we couldn’t climb the Three Peaks, or walk 100km across the Jurassic Coast, so instead on VE day we enlisted our friends and family to walk a target of 250 miles in one hour via Zoom, to raise money for The Ollie Foundation.
The decision to support The Ollie Foundation as this year’s charity was in support of a former colleague and her family who suffered a terrible loss in the lockdown when her brother tragically took his own life. The Ollie Foundation is dedicated to reducing the rate of suicides in the UK, particularly among young people, by providing suicide prevention skills training to communities.
The restriction to one hour of exercise per day has put a stop to group activities as we all fight the COVID-19 pandemic. So, in the spirit of bringing people together, we invited our portfolio companies, investors, and advisors to join us with a target of collectively walking 250 miles within an hour. To our delight and amazement, 254 people joined the Zoom call, mostly dressed in blue and some infancy dress(our highlights include an inflatable unicorn, two Batmen and a Princess!). Participants ranged in age from five months to 90 years old, and dialled in from 28 UK counties and seven different countries. Between us, we smashed our target by accumulating 852 miles in the hour and we raised £10,000 for The Ollie Foundation.
Henry Sallitt, Managing Partner of FPE Capital commented,
“We would like to extend a huge thank you to everyone who joined the walk and donated to the Ollie Foundation. We were absolutely thrilled by the number of people that were able to join us and wish everyone good health through this difficult time."
Watch the video of the event here