World Cleanup Day

Community Matters

Not even we can spend all of our time cleaning! Find out how the Spontex team get active within the community.

SUMMER CLEAN AT ST RICHARD’S HOSPICE!

Posted: 6th July 2023

GETTING OUTDOOR SPACES READY FOR THE SUMMER!

Newell CommUnity Week Banner

At Spontex, we’re always up for cleaning and we’ve supported St Richard’s hospice over the years so… a couple of weeks ago as part of the 2023 Newell CommUnity Week, our fabulous team spent the day doing some outdoor cleaning!

St Richards Clean Up 1

Armed with the best microfibre cloths, some gloves and a few buckets, the team did a fantastic job and managed to wash down garden benches and patio furniture to get everything ready for the summer! They even got to reacquaint with Wellyphant, the elephant we sponsored for 2021 Worcester’s Big Parade and they took the opportunity to give it a quick bath 😉.

Each year, St Richard’s Hospice provides free, expert and individual care and support for adults in South Worcestershire with serious progressive illnesses, improving their quality of life from diagnosis, during treatment and to their last days. This may be through care in patients’ own homes or in the community, in the In-patient Unit, Day Services or through its Family Support Team. They also work with other healthcare partners to prevent crisis intervention and hospital admissions where possible. We will certainly keep supporting them and if you too want to volunteer, donate or find out more about St Richard’s Hospice, you can visit https://www.strichards.org.uk

 
St Richards Clean Up 2
St Richards Clean Up 2
SPRING CLEAN UP!

Posted: 5th May 2022

NORTH WORCESTER SCHOOL LITTER PICKING!

Here at Spontex we’re always keen on a clean up so when Lucie, one of our team members, said some parents from North Worcester School were doing a mass litter pick we just knew we had to join in! The clean up was actually organised after the children noticed how much litter there was when walking home from school!

To support such a great and lovely initiative, we decided to give each parent a Spontex cleaning kit and some goodies and the children loved their “huggable” hogs! Armed with their litter pickers and their Spontex gloves, they enjoyed the day so much that they are now planning to do it on a regular basis!

We can’t wait to join in the next one and maybe even welcome some extra helpers for our next World Clean Up Day litter picking event! 😉

North Worcester Litter Pick 1
 
North Worcester Litter Pick 2
North Worcester Litter Pick 3
North Worcester Litter Pick 4
LITTER PICKING IN WORCESTER!

Posted: 1st October 2021

2021 WORLD CLEANUP DAY

At Spontex we love cleaning and this year we’re extremely proud to have partnered with World Cleanup Day, joining thousands of volunteers across the UK. We organised a local clean up around our UK Head Office in Worcester to pick up litter and rubbish from nearby streets and roads.

Gloves donated to volunteers World Cleanup Day is a global movement that is now present in 180 countries and that united over 21 million people worldwide in 2019 and 11 million in 2020 even with the restrictions a lot of countries experienced. Clean up events are organised every year to pick up litter from beaches, rivers, forests and streets. The movement was born in 2008 in Estonia where 50,000 people united to clean up the entire country in just five hours! This civic movement spread very rapidly around the globe and lots of people were inspired to join it with the same ambitious ‘one country, one-day’ formula. The event is led by The Skill Mill in the UK and has taken place every year since 2018. More than 20,000 volunteers took part in 2019, and the numbers have quadrupled this year with 80,000 volunteers coming together to do their bit.

Here at Spontex, to support this incredible initiative and to keep the hands of the volunteers protected whilst cleaning up we have donated 3,000 pairs of our Everyday Protect Household Gloves. We also organised a local clean up in Worcester around our offices and the amazing volunteers, equipped with their trolleys, vests, gloves and litter pickers managed to pick up 57.1kg and over 30 bags of litter in just a few hours! Check out the before and after below 😉

World Cleanup Day Start
World Cleanup Day Finish

We can’t wait to take part again next year and will help spread the word to get even more volunteers on board. To find out more about World Cleanup Day, you can go to https://www.worldcleanupday.org/.

SUMMER ART TRAIL IN WORCESTER WITH WELLYPHANT & CO!

Posted: 22nd July 2021

2021 WORCESTER’S BIG PARADE

After the success of the Worcester Stands Tall giraffes in 2018, Worcester’s Big Parade is back this year with beautifully decorated elephant sculptures to raise funds to support the amazing work done by St Richards Hospice. 66 elephants in total, both big and small, form an amazing free art trail through the streets of our wonderful city.

Worcester Cathedral Each of the 30 large elephant sculptures have been designed by local artists and are sponsored by a business… we’re proud to have been the first sponsor announced back in October and are absolutely thrilled to have our very own elephant aka Wellyphant! The 36 smaller calf sculptures have been decorated by local schools and community groups and are currently on show in city centre window shops and at the Crowngate Shopping Centre.

Spontex Wellyphant
Our lovely eye catching Wellyphant has been designed by Sarah Roberts who has over 30 years’ experience and works from her garden studio. Wellyphant has red wellies on ready for the next splash about in the fountain on the Quay. Our cute little hedgehog mascot has even managed to make an appearance on one of its wellies!

Spontex Wellyphant Plaque
The parade began on the 13th of July and all the sculptures will remain on show in the city’s streets and open spaces until the 5th of September 2021.

Trail maps are available from points around the city and there is also an app for the trail too which can be downloaded from the Google Play Store and the Apple App Store for £1.99. It allows visitors on the trail to track their progress as they walk the route, discovering elephants and facts about the city along the way.

After this, there will be the chance to say a final ‘goodbye’ to the elephants at a Farewell Event at Worcestershire County Cricket Club from the 30th of September till the 3rd of October and again from the 7th till the 10th of October, before the large elephants are then auctioned to raise funds for St Richard’s Hospice later in October.
BUILD YOUR OWN HEDGEHOG HAVEN!

Posted: 7th June 2021

2021 HEDGEHOG AWARENESS WEEK

Hedgehog Awareness Week 2021

ONCE AGAIN THIS YEAR, OUR FRIENDS AT THE BRITISH HEDGEHOG PRESERVATION SOCIETY HOSTED A FULL WEEK OF FANTASTIC EVENTS AND PRIZES TO KEEP RAISING THE PROFILE OF BRITAIN’S ONLY SPINY MAMMAL AND TO GIVE ADVICE ON HOW WE CAN ALL DO OUR BIT TO HELP PROTECT THEM AND MAKE THEIR LIVES MUCH EASIER.

This year the BHPS asked people to create their very own hedgehog haven, they even have a free downloadable leaflet on their website with a couple of design options for hedgehog homes. (https://www.britishhedgehogs.org.uk/hedgehog-homes).

“Our gardens take up such a lot of habitat, and by each making our own plot more hedgehog friendly, we can improve a huge amount of habitat for them. If you don’t have a garden yourself, you can still help by contacting public space managers, neighbours, family and friends to ensure they are all doing their bit. We urge everyone to become a Hedgehog Champion for their area at Hedgehog Street – a project run by BHPS and our partners People’s Trust for Endangered Species. Join more than 96,000 Champions by signing up for free at: www.hedgehogstreet.org – you will get an email with top tips on how you can help hedgehogs each month and there’s even a Hedgehog Street app you can download from The App Store or Google Play!” Says Fay Vass, Chief Executive of BHPS.

Hedgehog Awareness Week Competition Image

There are of course other things that can be done to protect hedgehogs if you haven’t got the space to build a home in your garden. For instance, making sure there are 5” x 5” (13 x 13cm) square gaps in the bottom of boundary fences and walls to create ‘Hedgehog Highways’, once these are created they can be logged on the BIG Hedgehog Map at www.bighedgehogmap.org. Moving piles of rubbish to a new site before burning it, stopping or reducing the amount of pesticides and poisons used and checking any compost heaps carefully before digging the fork in will all help to keep them safe and healthy too.

Spontex have been proudly supporting the amazing work of the BHPS for the past few years and we have continued to do so in 2021. We have, for the third year in a row, donated £1 to the BHPS for every pack of our 7 Washups & Free Huggable Hog sold on the Spontex Online Shop between the 2nd and 8th May. Last year we raised £550 and this year we have managed to match that fantastic result and we are extremely grateful for the great support the initiative has once again received. In addition, we also donated two bumper bundles of cleaning products for BHPS social media competitions on Facebook and Twitter on the first day of awareness week. BHPS has already raised more than £3,600 this year but you can still donate to the 2021 #hedgehogweek appeal at https://www.justgiving.com/campaign/HAW21.

If you would like to find out more about British hedgehogs and how to help the hogs in your neighbourhood visit http://www.britishhedgehogs.org.uk/

RUNNING FOR A GOOD CAUSE!

Posted: 25th May 2021

TOUR O’BOOTHS 2021, FUNDRAISING FOR CURE LEUKAEMIA

Tour O'Booths
2021 has marked the return of the Tour O’Booths cycling challenge organised by the retailer Booths. The first Tour O’Booths was in 2019 and they raised £23k for the mental health charity, Lancashire MIND. This year they are raising awareness and collecting funds for Cure Leukaemia, The Blood Cancer Charity. Blood cancer is still the third biggest cancer killer in the UK with approximately 38,000 people diagnosed and 14,000 losing their lives to the disease each year. The funds raised through Tour O’Booths will help Cure Leukaemia to keep supporting life-saving blood cancer clinical trials through the Trials Acceleration Programme (TAP).

The Tour, involving a Booths team of amateur cyclists, started on the 24th of May 2021 and will last for 5 days. On the route the team will visit all Booths stores, Booths HQ and it also includes two “stop-offs” at the Cure Leukaemia cancer treatment centres in Leeds and Manchester. That’s over 600km in total!

Here at Spontex we wanted to support this great initiative run by one of our valued customers, so we decided to sign up to be an event sponsor and donate £1,250. On top of that, two very brave members of our Sales team were up for a challenge and participated in the “Run a Leg” event that kicked off the Tour on the 24th of May. It was a traffic free route between Booths Central Office and their Fruit & Veg processing facility in Preston… and we’re proud to say that they both completed it despite the rain! Well done Mark and Andrew! Now it’s time to start training for next year to complete the full cycling challenge 😉!

Find out more about the Tour O’Booths 2021 here
CREATING HEDGEHOG HIGHWAYS TOGETHER!

Posted: 15th May 2020

2020 Hedgehog Awareness Week

Hedgehog Awareness Banner

DESPITE THE CHALLENGING TIMES WE’RE ALL GOING THROUGH AT THE MOMENT, OUR FRIENDS AT THE BRITISH HEDGEHOG PRESERVATION SOCIETY HAVE ONCE AGAIN DELIVERED A FULL WEEK OF FANTASTIC EVENTS AND PRIZES TO KEEP RAISING AWARENESS OF ALL THE ISSUES ENCOUNTERED BY OUR VERY MUCH LOVED BRITISH HEDGEHOGS AND TO GIVE ADVICE ON HOW WE CAN ALL DO OUR BIT TO HELP THEM FROM OUR HOMES.

This year the Society have asked people to talk to their neighbours (social distancing permitting of course!) to try and make the whole street or neighbourhood hedgehog friendly. The idea is that everyone talks to at least 5 people and gets them to join the cause by making a 14cm x 14cm gap in the bottom of their fences or walls to create a Hedgehog Highway so that hedgehogs can move easily from one garden to another!

“The COVID-19 restrictions mean we are probably all spending more time in our own gardens and greenspaces so it’s an ideal time to make those areas better for our dwindling population of hedgehogs as well as doing something positive, safe at home.” Says Fay Vass, Chief Executive of BHPS.

There are lots of other jobs the whole family can get busy with such as constructing a log pile to provide both shelter and food for hedgehogs or creating a feeding station with meaty cat or dog food for hedgehogs to eat at night, just make sure it can’t be stolen by neighbourhood cats. Water is also essential especially in hot dry conditions so leaving shallow bowls of water in your garden can be a lifesaver for them! And, if you fancy doing some DIY, you can also build your own Hedgehog Home for them to nest in and use as a nursery, there are even plans available on BHPS website.

Spontex have been proudly supporting the amazing work of the BHPS for the past few years and we have continued to do so in 2020. We have repeated the successful activity that was implemented in 2019 and have donated £1 to the BHPS for every pack of our 7 Washups & Free Huggable Hog sold on the Spontex Online Shop between the 4th and 10th May. Last year we raised £100 and this year we are extremely grateful for the great support the initiative has received and we’re delighted to share that a total of £550 has been raised for the BHPS. In addition to that, two bundles of cleaning products have also been donated for BHPS social media competitions on Facebook and Twitter to announce the launch of the awareness week. BHPS has already raised more than £2,000 during Hedgehog Awareness Week but you can still donate to the 2020 #hedgehogweek appeal at https://www.justgiving.com/campaign/HAW20.

British Hedgehog Preservation Society Facebook Competition

In 2020, Spontex will be raising awareness until the end of May with a #HogArt competition in which everyone can share their hedgehoggy creations across Facebook and Instagram! 20 “huggable” hogs are up for grabs so share your Hog Art masterpieces with us before the 31st of May if you want to enter the competition. We have already received some really nice ones, check them out!

Hog Art Montage

If you would like to find out more about British hedgehogs and how to help the hogs in your neighbourhood visit http://www.britishhedgehogs.org.uk/

Autumn Clean at St Richard’s Hospice!

Posted: 3rd October 2019

STREAK-FREE WINDOWS!

The Spontex Team Autumn Clean at St Richard’s Hospice!

At Spontex, we’re always up for a bit of cleaning and we always try to support local charities whenever we can so… a couple of weeks ago our fabulous team spent a full day cleaning windows at St Richard’s Hospice in Worcester!

Armed with the best Microfibre Window Kits, Handy Sponges, buckets… (and even flat mops for some of the higher windows! :O) the Spontex crew managed to leave the windows and even the bike shed gleaming!

We’re proud to have saved St Richard’s Hospice over £500 that they would otherwise have had to pay for window cleaning!


The Spontex Team Autumn Clean at St Richard’s Hospice collage 1
The Spontex Team Autumn Clean at St Richard’s Hospice collage 2

Each year, St Richard’s Hospice provides free, expert and individual care and support to more than 3,300 patients, families and bereaved people in Worcestershire. The charity cares for adults with a serious progressive illness, improving their quality of life from diagnosis, during treatment and to their last days.

This may be through care in patients’ own homes or in the community, in the In-patient Unit, Day Services or through its Family Support Team.

St Richard’s is an independent charity and relies on donations and gifts in Wills for the majority of its income with 22% funded by the NHS.

Its Fundraising Team holds many events, campaigns and challenges during the year – and the charity also has 19 shops and a warehouse across the county.

St Richard’s has a team of around 900 volunteers who give precious time and help across the hospice’s departments.

We will certainly be supporting them again and if you too want to volunteer or find out more about St Richard’s Hospice, you can visit https://www.strichards.org.uk

CLEANING UP THE SEVERN!

Posted: 15th July 2019

ALL HANDS ON DECK!

July just wouldn’t be July if everyone at Spontex HQ hadn’t been once again gearing up for the annual Race the Dragon regatta. A crew of 17 brave and daring souls gave up their Sunday lie-ins and rocked up on the banks of the Severn early in the morning on the 7th July. The team this year was made up of old hands and some newbies, all of them totally unfazed that they’d only been able to participate in one training session as a team (adverse weather conditions stopped play on a couple of occasions), they were oozing with confidence and more importantly team spirit. With a fancy new gazebo and even fancier costumes inspired by the 80s… yes we’re talking neon headbands, leggings and wristbands… the mighty Oars of Spontex were ready to hit the water…


The Oars of Spontex Team 2019
The Oars of Spontex Team 2019 in the Dragon boat

After four gruelling races, team Spontex finished a very respectable 12th out of 26 teams winning a beautiful shiny new trophy for our ever expanding collection. In between races the crew didn’t rest up much either, they gave out hundreds of samples of our new Washups Mosaik Sponge Scourers, and you know something, thanks to the local Worcester kids we found out that sponge scourers have so many uses we could only have imagined! :0 We're also very pleased to have contributed towards the £1,300 raised by Worcester Dragon Boat Racing Club for the Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI), an amazing charity who make our waters safer for everyone and who aim to educate, influence, supervise and rescue those at risk from drowning.

If you'd like find out more or maybe even try Dragon Boat Racing for yourself, visit worcester-dragons.org.uk. Before we hang up the oars and pick the mops back up, we’d just like to say to everyone involved in this annual pilgrimage… well done, you’ve done us and yourselves proud!

Give a hog a home!

Posted: 9th May 2019

Hedgehog Awareness Week

Hog BannerOur friends at the British Hedgehog Preservation Society are once again arranging a full week of hedgehoggy events all around the UK to raise awareness of the struggles faced by British hedgehogs and to give advice on how we can all do our bit to help, which is more important than ever before as hedgehog populations are still in decline.

There are several easy ways to help hedgehogs. For instance, making sure there are CD case sized gaps in boundary fences and walls to allow easy passage or moving piles of rubbish to a new site before burning it. Also, stopping or reducing the amount of pesticides and poisons used and ensuring there is an easy route out of ponds and pools will help in keeping them safe and healthy.

This year the Society is asking people to make a space for hedgehogs to live in their garden. No excuses, the BHPS even has a free downloadable plan for building a hedgehog home on their website (www.britishhedgehogs.org.uk/hedgehog-homes). We really couldn’t think of anything nicer… check out our very own brand new Spontex hog home!

Number One Hog Haven

Spontex have been doing their bit to support the work of the BHPS for the past few years and will continue this year. A hedgehog awareness leaflet will be added to all orders placed on the Spontex Online Shop during Hedgehog Awareness Week and we will donate £1 to the BHPS for every pack of our 7 Washups & Free Huggable Hog sold on the Spontex Online Shop between the 5th and 11th May. Two bundles of products will also be donated for BHPS social media competitions on Facebook and Twitter. BHPS is hoping to raise £1,000 during Hedgehog Awareness Week 2019, you can donate to the 2019 #hedgehogweek appeal at www.justgiving.com/campaign/HAW19.

In 2019, Spontex are proud to also be supporting Medway Hedgehog Rescue with a hamper of Spontex goodies that will be part of the raffle they are holding during Hedgehog Awareness Week. This local rescue admitted 350 hedgehogs over the past year most which were then released into the wild once they had fully recuperated. Nice job Medway!

If you would like to find out more about British hedgehogs and how to help the hogs in your neighbourhood visit http://www.hedgehogstreet.org/

Update: Hot off the press… we sold nearly 100 packs last week, thanks to everyone who bought a pack, so we’ve just donated £100 to the BHPS! They’ve raised more than £2,700 so far which will help them continue the good work. If you haven't already, you can still donate until the 30th of June.

Washups Hog Pack
GO THE OARS OF SPONTEX!

Posted: 1st August 2018

Racing for the cup!

It was once again time to dust off the paddles, don the life preservers and venture back out onto the Severn... training for the 2018 Worcester Dragon Boat Festival was upon us!

In what is now an annual pilgrimage for the overly keen Spontex Dragon Boat Crew we spent 3 evenings at Worcester Dragon Boat Racing Club refining our technique, practising synchronised paddling and following the directions, advice and occasionally orders from the helm. We paddled together and with every the beat of the drum the boat went faster and faster, we felt exhilarated and confident... were we in with a chance this year?!

 

GUESS WHAT?

The Oars of Spontex win the Dragon Boat Race
Dragon Boat Race Trophy

We only went and won a trophy! Okay, so it's not the cup, but after the preliminary heats we found ourselves in the top tier which meant we had qualified to race for the cup!

Despite competing against the biggest ever field, a total of 36 teams from in and around Worcester, we managed to finish in our best ever position of 11th overall and 4th in the mixed team group table.

We were brimming with pride as we returned to Spontex HQ clutching our shiny new silverware!

We'll definitely return next year for some more fun on the water and who knows... maybe we should invest in a trophy cabinet...

Winning a trophy aside, we're also very proud to have contributed towards the £1,700 raised by Worcester Dragon Boat Racing Club for Worcester Snoezelen, an independent charity specifically set up to offer multi-sensory and creative activities for people who have a diverse range of disabilities.

If you'd like find out more or maybe even try Dragon Boat Racing for yourself, visit worcester-dragons.org.uk

THE ZULUS KICK-OFF IN DEVON!

Posted: 1st August 2018

GO TEAM!

Worcester Rugby Club Under 15s Team called The Zulus

Here at Spontex HQ we love sport and we love Worcester, it’s been our home for the past 19 years, so we couldn’t have been happier when we were asked to sponsor a group of local lads for their upcoming rugby tour.

These formidable young men are members of the Worcester Rugby Club Under 15s Team called The Zulus… and they really are fiercely competitive warriors!!!

A touring party of 70 people, 25 Zulus supported by a very dedicated bunch of 45 parents, took to the road at Easter to tour North Devon. They played all of the tournament games at Barnstaple RFC and won them all, yes every single one! Well done boys, you’ve done us and yourselves proud!

Worcester Rugby Club Under 15s

Spontex sponsorship along with other local companies paid for the shirts and we have to say the lads looked really smart, we particularly like the ties!

We can't wait to see how The Zulus get on next season, keep up the good work!

Worcester Rugby Club Under 15s Team
Race the Dragon!

Posted: 10th July 2017

Spontex Take To The Water…Part 2!

The Oars of Spontex Team

After a successful (ish) debut on the water back in 2015, The Oars of Spontex took to the river Severn once again to compete for the title of Worcestershire’s best Dragon Boaters! Unfortunately it never quite worked out that way, but we gave it a blooming good go - and had some real fun in the process!

After 3 training sessions where we made the transition from beginner to novice (you’ll notice that indicates very little progress was actually made), team Spontex, sporting rather fetching red Baywatch t-shirts, splashed our way to the start line of the 2017 Race the Dragon charity regatta, with nothing but silverware in mind. The reality was that once again in our opening race we finished a convincing second (out of two). But not to be deterred, after a further two races we managed to paddle up the leader board and against all odds, qualified for the winners’ cup!

Our tale of sporting immortality ends there though as more seasoned rowers were able to out-muscle us, but a final finish of 13th out of 24 and time well spent in the sun cheering on the other races rendered the day a huge success! More importantly, the Worcester Dragon Boat Racing Club donated all proceedings to Leukaemia Care charity, raising what they think will be a grand total of around £2,500.

Although we’re now back in more familiar surroundings ensuring the world does not go sponge-less (no need to thank us, honestly…) attention has already turned to next year. A few of the crew plan to become fully fledged members of the Worcester Dragons so here’s to 2018…it could be our year!

Dragon Boat Racing The Oars of Spontex
HEDGEHOG FILMS CLEAN UP AT THE OSCARS!

Posted: 18th March 2016

WELL DONE WALFORD PRIMARY!

Hedgehog Oscars Winners

Here at Spontex we love all things hedgehog and so not surprisingly we were absolutely delighted when we were approached by the Chair of the Hedgehog Festival in Ross-on-Wye and asked to supply the prizes for the much anticipated Oscars Night at Walford Primary School on the 17th March. The school hosts an annual awards ceremony where the children receive prizes for the best documentary film, the best sound track etc. This year, was the first ever year for the Golden Hedgehog Award!

29 children from Year 3 (aged 7 and 8) produced wonderful educational 3 minute films on how to care for hedgehogs. All of the children did such a fantastic job that it was difficult to choose the winners, they are all stars in our eyes! 5 winners each received a giant cuddly Spontex hog and all of the runners up also got their own mini cuddly hog.

Since 2014, the Hedgehog Festival in Ross-on-Wye has gone from strength to strength. They now have at least one event per month to celebrate the hedgehog! Why? The Hedgehog is an ancient symbol of Ross-on-Wye, which goes back to 450 AD. To find out more about what they have planned, visit playross.com. The Spontex team can’t wait for Mrs Tiggy-Winkle's Street Tea Party on Sunday 31st July. See you there!

Hedgehog Oscars Winner
Whatever Floats Your Boat!

Posted: 30th June 2015

Make way for the Oars of Spontex!

Conner

Team Spontex, bold, brilliant and a tiny bit bonkers, decided to step out of the office and onto the water to take part in the annual Worcester Dragon Boat Race. Although we’re not all natural water babies we were persuaded to get onboard to raise money in honour of a rather special little man…

Meet one of the newest members of the Spontex family, Connor. Connor is the son of our Quality and Supply Chain Manger, Mel and we think he’s an absolute smasher. Unfortunately Connor hasn’t had the easiest start in life as he was born with Hypo Plastic Left Heart Syndrome. Thankfully because of the incredible work of Birmingham Children’s Hospital he’s now doing well and has a bright future ahead! To say thank you and support them in helping other children we all agreed it was time for us to do something a little bit different to fundraise for them!

So it was, after four weeks of training with strong arms (and shaky legs!) our team, The Oars of Spontex, stepped into a dragon boat to do battle with some of the finest Dragon Boat Teams that Worcestershire has to offer. We’re not going to lie to you, we got trounced in our first race, but we pulled it back by winning the next two and eventually came 5th out of the 24 teams in our league! The team had a great day together and better still we raised over £490 for Birmingham Children’s Hospital. You can still donate by visiting https://www.justgiving.com/TheOarsOfSpontex

The Oars Of Spontex
Wipe Away Those Tears

Posted: 22nd June 2015

Having a ball!

Wipe Away Those Tears

At Spontex we try to do as much as we can to support the charitable efforts of others. This is why, for the last 3 years, we have been proud to support Essex based charity, Wipe Away Those Tears. The charity was set up in 2006 by Gail O’Shea who, acknowledging how fortunate she was to have a healthy family of four, decided to help those less fortunate by raising money to grant wishes for terminally or seriously ill children in her area. Gail has since worked tirelessly to fundraise for the charity, raising £1.2 million over the last 9 years and has recently been voted Tesco Compassionate Mum of the Year 2015.

Each summer Wipe Away Those Tears raise a phenomenal amount of money by holding a Summer Ball at which they try to give every guest a special goody bag. Spontex is proud to support the charity by providing products to go in these bags and has this year donated a Spontex Microfibre Kitchen Cloth and a Spontex Microfibre Window Cloth for each of the 170 guests. We’re sure the event will be the stunning success it always is and that everyone attending will have a wonderful time!

Find out more about the outstanding work that is done by Wipe Away Those Tears by visiting http://www.wipeawaythosetears.org/

Make way for hedgehogs!

Posted: 09th June 2015

Hedgehog Awareness Week

Could you make room in your garden for a hedgehog? That was the question being posed by our friends at the British Hedgehog Preservation Society during this year’s Hedgehog Awareness Week (3rd to 9th May). Every year the BHPS arrange a week of events, competitions and media appearances to help raise awareness of the struggles faced by British hedgehogs and give advice on how we can help. It’s more important than ever before for us all to do our bit to help as hedgehog populations have declined by a third over the last ten years!

Did you know that a hedgehog can roam a whole mile in a night to find enough food to survive? This is made much trickier by our garden fences and walls which carve up hedgehog territory and force them to travel even further to find the resources they need! The good news is that helping your local hedgehog population is really simple, all you need to do is make a 5 inch square gap in the boundary to your garden! You can do this either by making a small hole in your fence or digging a little channel underneath.
British Hedgehog Preservation Society
British Hedgehog Preservation Society at work

Spontex have been doing their bit to support the work of the British Hedgehog Preservation Society by donating 50 pairs of our hedgehog print gloves which were used in competitions to help raise the profile of Hedgehog Awareness Week. If you would like to find out more about British Hedgehogs and how to help the hogs in your neighbourhood visit http://www.hedgehogstreet.org/

Fair Play St. Johns Colts!

Posted: 18th May 2015

Team News

St. Johns Colts United Under 12

As the football season comes to an end we have to say that we couldn’t be prouder of the local youth team we sponsor, St Johns Colts United U12.

 

Competing in their first summer tournament of the year, The Colts were proud recipients of the Max Edwards Memorial Fair Play Award. The award, scored by the tournament referees, is based on players, coaches and supporters attitudes towards each other, opponents and officials and helps to promote the values of the FA's Respect Campaign. It is testament to the great attitude and positivity shown by the young team throughout the season.

St. Johns Colts United Under 12 team talk

Team coach Luke commented - “They never gave up, they never got on each other’s backs, they helped each other, they smiled with each other, and even though we lost our games, we won Fair Play, and winning fair play is winning the tournament for me.”

Well done St Johns Colts, you’ve done us and yourselves proud!

St. Johns Colts United Under 12 trophy
Meet St. Johns Colts United!

Posted: 06th January 2015

COME ON YOU LADS!

St. Johns Colts United Under 12 The Team

Here in Worcester, the home of Spontex HQ, you'll find this dedicated group of under 12s training hard every Friday night. They're a great bunch of chaps committed to the game and each other and with the help of their wonderful manager Luke we expect them to go far!

We've been delighted to sponsor the boys this season by buying their kit and we’ve also given them some cosy training hoodies. We think they look rather dashing, don't you agree?

The team plays home and away matches around Worcestershire each Sunday and finished 2014 on a high with a nail biting 3 to 2 win! We can't wait to see how they get on during the rest of the season, keep up the good work Colts, you're doing us proud!

THE SPONTEX COMMUNITY CLEAN UP

Posted: 11th December 2014

MAKING A DIFFERENCE IN OUR COMMUNITY...

When we heard about the brilliant work of local charity Worcester Animal Rescue Shelter (WARS) we decided we had to do something special to support them! WARS is home to over 40 cats and dogs who are cared for by a dedicated team of staff and volunteers until loving homes can be found for them. In fact the staff are so devoted to keeping the kennels and cattery in pristine condition that their own quarters have been a little neglected!

In October Spontex changed all that by sending in a clean team to give the reception, kitchen, office and bathroom the deep clean of a lifetime. We won’t lie, it was a pretty tough challenge which took 2 days to complete, but what a difference! We also gave WARS a bumper package of products to ensure that keeping things clean will be better, quicker and easier!

Animal Shelter Montage
Community Clean up group photo

MAKING NEW FRIENDS...

After the cleaning was done some of the team from Spontex HQ also decided to go the extra mile by volunteering their time to walking and playing with the dogs. We met lots of cheeky chappies, including gentle giant Flynn who enjoyed a good run around in the play pen, Monty who stole our hearts and the mighty Tommy, who took our smallest team member Jess for a walk, instead of the other way round!

We were also joined by our friend Aggie MacKenzie who was on hand to meet staff and volunteers and celebrate the unveiling of the newly cleaned staff areas!

THE SPONTEX COMMUNITY CLEAN UP WINNER

Posted: 24th October 2014

Earlier this year we invited local people to nominate a charitable community space that deserved some help from Spontex!

After reading through many applications, finding out about lots of fantastic community projects and lots of deliberation we finally selected a very deserving winner, the Worcestershire Animal Rescue Shelter.

W.A.R.S have been providing shelter to neglected, abandoned or stray animals since they first opened their doors in 2001. Through the fantastic fundraising efforts of their staff and volunteers they have been able to purpose build a large kennel and cattery, an outdoor playpen and isolation block for those animals who need a bit of extra special care.

The staff and volunteers at W.A.R.S are dedicating to ensuring that the animals in their care have the best time possible until loving new families can be found for them and ensure each animal receives some special attention every day. Unfortunately because everyone is so focused on the happiness of the animals they’ve forgotten to take care of themselves! The staff spaces have become a bit worn and grubby over time, but now Spontex are here to help!

On October 31st the Spontex Clean team will be visiting W.A.R.S to help them get their staff areas back to their sparkling best! The Reception, Office, Kitchen and Bathroom will all receive a much needed a dose of clever cleaning and we’ll also be donating lots of products to help the staff look after the centre in the year to come!

The Spontex Team are also looking forward to spending some time with the cats and dogs of W.A.R.S, giving them the fuss they so richly deserve! Our partner in grime, Aggie MacKenzie will also be joining us to cut the ribbon on the newly gleaming staff block!

We’re delighted to be able to help such a worthy charity, and we can’t wait to show you the results!

For more information about Worcestershire Animal Rescue Shelter and their fantastic work you can visit them at www.wars.org.uk

THE SPONTEX COMMUNITY CLEAN UP COMPETITION

Posted: 22nd August 2014

Here at Spontex we’ve always been proud to say that we’re the home of Clever Cleaning.

Now we’ve decided it’s time to use our knowledge and resources to give something back to our home town!

Spontex Head Quarters has been based in Worcestershire since 1999 and our brilliant staff come from towns and cities across the county. Recently we put our heads together to decide how we could invest something into our local community. After much discussion we realised we should do what we know best, CLEAN!

To do this we need your help!

We want you to nominate a local indoor community space that is in need of a Spontex clean! It could be a village hall, nursery, function room or kitchen, any space which is valuable to the local community and needs a spruce up!

The winning venue will be visited by a team of cleaners and be brought back to life using Spontex cleaning products. It will also receive a prize package including gloves, cloths, scourers and mops to help it stay beautiful for the year to come!

To nominate your community space for a Spontex Clever Clean simply email us at webmail.spontexuk@newellco.com and tell us:
• Where your community space is.
• What it does and who it supports.
• What cleaning is required. (E.g. kitchen, bathroom or general?)

Photographs are very welcome but not essential!

Closing date is September 19th 2014 and the clean will take place at a date to be arranged during October 2014.