This Christmas, Middlesbrough based marketing and design agency, Pink Penguin will be raising money for local charity, MAIN, which helps to support children with autism.
The fundraising will run from November 13th, which signifies World Kindness Day and will run until December 21st. Pink Penguin will be partaking in several fundraising activities, including door-to-door cake sales, holding a networking event in December and donating 10% of all new sales between these dates.
The main event will see one of the Pink Penguin team brave a 160ft bungee jump from the Tees Transporter Bridge.
Pink Penguin hope by putting the spotlight on autism and the work MAIN do, it will increase awareness in the local area. The long wait for diagnosis of autism and the lack of post-diagnostic support is central to the discussion surrounding autism during 2018. MAIN Charity Manager, Helen Jaques calls it: “a postcode lottery as different areas have different waiting times”.
Speaking of the fundraising efforts, she said: “we are delighted with the support received from Pink Penguin. MAIN don’t receive any external funding, so we have to work very hard to maintain and improve our services.”
MAIN are a Teesside based charity that was set up in 2002 as an after-school service for autistic children in Middlesbrough. It now provides support for families, by offering short breaks at their purpose-built facility.
They also provide accredited and non-accredited training about autism, ADHD and PDA to public service workers such as social workers, teachers and doctors.
They pride themselves on the fun and participatory nature of their clubs, which Helen hopes “encourages the children to make new friends and try new things. Our long-term outcome is to help increase their confidence, boost their self-esteem and improve their overall wellbeing.”