On the 5^th October 2018, Watton Recruitment launched what they hope to be an annual event, supporting The Kings Arms Project. The day saw local business’s enter teams into a challenge-based event in and around Bedford raising money for this great cause.

The event saw teams start at Pavilion in the Park where several challenges including one involving blindfolds and an other padlocks, took place The teams then headed to in2beats, our local radio station to answer a question live on air. A trip to The Harper Centre followed, with the teams performing a busking task in front of shoppers. The final leg saw the teams race to be the first one back to The Kings Arms on Ampthill Road. All teams had to avoid main roads for all challenges and could gain time penalties if they didn’t follow the social media and mapping tweets!

The Teams

The Challenges

All the teams really got stuck in and came dressed up and ready to go. A lot of laughs were had and an amazing amount of £4k was raised! Watch this space for this year’s date…

Will Team Wonderwomen keep the title of overall #Challengebedford winners; Team The Honourable Fruitcakes keep up their creative streak and the title for most creative team; and Team Kap Allstars continue to be the winning team for the most money raised? I would like to see some challengers…

The Winners

The week of 1^st to 5^th October was so busy! Not only did we organise our own challenge, #challengebedford, and were in our peak of Christmas staffing, we had the added responsibility of running and maintaining the rota for the world record attempt for the longest running live radio show!

Both DJ Stevo and DJ Dannii from in2beats 106.5fm went live on air at 8am on Monday 1^st and didn’t end their show until 8pm on Friday 5^th October. The work behind the scenes from all parties was immense! The shifts for witnesses were in 4-hour blocks over 24 hour shift patterns, with no staff from in2beats being allowed to witness and no witness being allowed to do more than 4 hours in each 24 hour period. And there had to be 2 witnesses present at all times! It was a very complex and challenging rota but with the dedication of the internal staff at Watton Recruitment, including our very own MD Philomena Watton even doing the midnight to 4am shift before heading to work, the rota ran smoothly, and the Bedford community was amazing.

Thank you so much to everyone involved and fingers crossed the word record team sign it off after reviewing the hours of footage that have been submitted.

With the announcement of two large warehouses coming to Bedford, Philomena made an appearance on the local BBC news to share her experienced and trusted opinion on the employment growth, and the highs and low of recruitment in the local area. Her fear of public speaking is well and truly conquered!

Every year the team at Watton Recruitment have pledged Easter eggs to a chosen charity. This year they were able to support three charities!!

• FACES, a local children’s charity who have always had our support, received 60 eggs;
• The YMCA who run women’s refuges received 30 eggs and Easter egg hunt packs for the children to have fun with on Easter morning; and
• The Kings Arms Project passed over 40 eggs on to the homeless of Bedford who stay at the night shelter within Bedford Day Centre.

Watton Recruitment was not responsible for the organising and hosting of this year’s Bedfordshire BusinessWomen Awards (phew!), however still played a huge part in the evening. For the 3^rd consecutive year they were a headline sponsor for Female Employee of the Year award. Philomena Watton was also a finalist in the Silver Heart category for her work within the local community and was delighted to present a cheque for over £5,000 to Marjbritt from The Kings Arms Project for the money raised during her year as president in 2017. What a great evening!!

Video of Philomena presenting the Female Employee of the Year awards

Philomena presenting a cheque for over £5,000 to The Kings Arms Project

Philomena with her fellow Silver Heart award finalists