The team at test, measurement and assurance vendor Viavi’s Edinburgh, Scotland, office is engaged in a number of charitable initiatives including with the Bethany Christian Trust, which provides assistance to some 7,000 homeless people in the country including daily meal service and access to shelter facilities.
“A group from Viavi has gone out in the van and helped serve [meals]…doing the driving, serving food and handing out clothes to around 40 people a night,” Caitlin Paterson, a proposal manager at the Edinburgh office, told RCR Wireless News. Staff members have also helped out at the emergency shelter, which is open from October to April.
“The friendliness and thankfulness of almost all of the people we serve who are living on the street is very humbling,” Paterson said. “When we go home at the end of the night to our own houses, we are very aware that we are fortunate.”
In addition to work with the Bethany Christian Trust, Viavi has raised nearly £6,000 for Maggie Keswick Jencks Cancer Caring Centres Trust. The funds were raised during a 24-hour “spin-a-thon…We kept a spin bike going for 24 hours solid,” Paterson said. “To keep the money coming in between events, we also raise money for them by selling snacks and drinks in the office instead of having vending machines. All items have a suggested donation price and once costs are covered, the excess money goes to this excellent cause!”
