Ten members of the team at the Meadowfield-headquartered firm took on a daunting zip wire challenge from the top of the Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art in Gateshead across the River Tyne and down almost 1,000 feet onto the Newcastle Quayside.
All the members of the Banks team made it safely across the river, brining in £2,420 for the staff’s charity of the year, Integrating Children, in the process, and taking the total amount raised for it so far to over £13,600.
The zip wire is the latest in a series of physical challenges that members of the Banks Group team have taken on to raise money for Integrating Children, with events including the Druridge Bay 10K run on the Northumberland coast, the Total Warrior event at Bramham Park in Leeds and the Great North Run all successfully completed.
Based in Chester-le-Street, Integrating Children aims to involve children and young people aged between six and 25 years old with a range of disabilities and learning difficulties in mainstream activities which can help them build key life skills and friendships, improve confidence, and enable them to interact better with others.
The organisation works with up to 100 children and young people a year and offers over ten thousand activity hours per annum during both term time and school holidays.
Activities are organised between Integrating Children’s staff, the young people in question and their families, and include individual and team sports, music, rowing, going to the cinema or theatre, shopping trips, or going as a group to a restaurant.
Lucy Hinds, who was one of the zip wire team, says: “We had perfect weather conditions for the slide, but pushing yourself off into fresh air from such a height was still a pretty daunting prospect.
“It was the first time that any of us had done anything like this, and there were a lot of nerves in the build up, but riding the zipwire and seeing the views on the way was a fantastic experience.
“The response that the whole team has given to this year’s fundraising challenge has been fantastic, and we’ve got more activities planned through the remainder of the year to get the total amount raised as high as possible.”
For more information on supporting Integrating Children, visit www.integratingchildren.co.uk or follow @IntChildren on Twitter.