South West Personnel is proud to have donated to the annual Children’s Festival – CIRCUS QUIRKUS to be held at the Bunbury Regional Entertainment Centre on the 6th August hosted by the Bunbury Police and Community Youth Centre. This event is organised to give the most disadvantaged children of our area a wonderful day to remember with one of the world’s best performers astounding the kids with acrobatics, clowning, juggling, death-defying stunts and lots of comedy!
NEWS
At South West Personnel, we love being involved in the local community.
Whether it's participation in local fundraising and sporting events, or lending a helping hand to charities and non-profit groups, we do it with passion.
Check out what we've been up to lately...
2014 Children's Festival - Circus Quirkus
South West Personnel's Morning Tea Fundraiser for Cancer
It’s frightening to think that 1 in 3 women and 1 in 2 men will be diagnosed with cancer before the age of 85. For SWP’s Hannah Sharpe, knowing people who have been touched by cancer was reason enough to rally the troupes and hold an ‘Australia’s Biggest Morning Tea’ fundraiser on Wednesday 7 May 2014.
With a fantastic spread of food (courtesy of the office chocolate fundraising jar) 14 SWP staff assembled in the boardroom to partake in a rare morning tea at the office and to raise funds for this very worthwhile cause.
Hannah’s goal was to raise $100 and she set up a Cancer Council ‘Australia’s Biggest Morning Tea’ Host web page to track their progress. Not even one week later and Hannah is pleased to announce SWP have exceeded their target, raising $230 … and counting!
All funds generated from morning teas across the country will help Cancer Council continue its cancer research, prevention and support services. Last year they raised over $12.7 million and this year’s target is 35,000 morning tea events, raising $13 million.
If you’d like to contribute to SWP’s morning tea fundraiser, please follow the link to their web page:
http://wa.cancercouncilfundraising.org.au/southwestpersonnel14
Or, if you’d like to hold your own morning tea fundraiser, you can get more information at: www.biggestmorningtea.com.au
Hannah and the team at SWP look forward to raising even more funds next year, when they hold their next Australia’s Biggest Morning Tea event.
Dalyellup Dockers Football Club Sponsorship
South West Personnel Sponsor the Dalyellup Dockers
The Dalyellup Dockers Football Club is gearing up for a very exciting year and new sponsors South West Personnel will be proudly cheering them on from the sidelines!
As the May 3 season launch draws closer, the Dalyellup Dockers Football Club (a partner club of the Fremantle Football Club) has excitedly accepted a 3-year Gold sponsorship from SWP.
Since its inception in 2009 the Club has grown to over 200 kids, with more than 150 kids making up 10 junior teams and another 50 in the 5-8 years Auskick competition.
Assistant Coach for the Docker’s Year-9 Team Jason Frisina, also SWP’s OSH Coordinator, explained that the teams “can expect to travel to games in Bunbury, Australind, Harvey, Brunswick and Collie – and this year for the first time, as far away as Dunsborough and Margaret River as new clubs join the league. This will give them plenty of experience as the Club’s Year-9 Team aims for a spot in the South West Football League’s Colts competition in 2015.”
SWP’s sponsorship of the Dalyellup Dockers Football Club is another example of our ongoing commitment to supporting local community clubs and charities.
Go Dalyellup Dockers!
Beach Volleyball Corporate Cup
SWP Sponsorship a bit of ‘Hit & Giggle’
South West Personnel have shown their community spirit once again by sponsoring the 2013-14 Beach Volleyball Corporate Cup; their third year as naming rights sponsor.
Held each Wednesday night from November through until March, this year’s Cup saw a record number of 42 teams compete across 13 courts at Koombana Beach in Bunbury.
Bunbury Volleyball Association President Jim Medew said about the event: “It’s a great way to bring Bunbury’s corporate world together to network in a non-threatening way. The rules are somewhat ‘relaxed’ and we focus more on participation than competition. And with one bye per week there’s a bit of social time in there as well!”
Many participants have enjoyed their taste of volleyball so much they have gone on to join the Association’s 6-a-side, 4-a-side and doubles competitions as well.
If your organisation is interested in joining the fun and frivolity of next year’s Corporate Cup, visit the Bunbury Volleyball Association’s facebook page and stay tuned for details.
SIDS & Kids Pancake Run
SWP Supports SIDS & Kids Pancake Run
On Sunday 23 March 2014 three of South West Personnel’s most dedicated and athletic staff joined the Bunbury Runner’s Club at Central Park in Dalyellup to celebrate families and support those who have lost children to SIDS.
Founded by Maria Quick and Janine Eriksson three years ago after the death of Maria’s daughter Cassie to SIDS, the annual event raises funds to help SIDS & Kids WA both educate families and offer bereavement support.
Jim Medew, Hayley Moore and Raelein Beaumont (and family) were amongst the 600 participants in this year’s 5km run, 10km run and 5km walk, and together with around 1,000 spectators they raised over $12,000 for this very worthy cause.
Although Jim was being ‘healthy’ and did not partake, over 1,400 pancakes were served to those wanting a little reward for their hard work!
Inaugural Winner of Client Survey Award
SWP Rewards Clients for Valuable Feedback
The team at South West Personnel takes great pride in providing an exceptional level of service to all our clients, but in a commitment to continually improve customer service, we send ‘satisfaction surveys’ to our clients in an effort to generate feedback regarding our performance.
Recently we added an incentive to these surveys, and we’d like to congratulate the inaugural winner of the SWP Client Survey, Richard Hey from Brownes Food Operations.
Richard has been with Brownes Food Operations for 10 years and Brownes’ relationship with SWP extends even further back, recruiting general factory hands and forklift drivers on a weekly basis through SWP.
Richard has been very happy with the performance of the candidates provided by SWP and decided to take a few minutes out of his day to provide this feedback via the Client Survey.
“I didn’t even know about the wine, so it was a wonderful surprise to receive it from SWP, although my wife very quickly snapped it up when I got home!”
The next SWP Client Survey will arrive in your inbox soon, so if you’d like to be the lucky recipient of a bottle of south west wine, we’d love to receive your feedback!
Jim Medew – follow-up New York City Marathon
Jim Medew: NYC Marathon Done & Dusted!
When we last caught up with Jim Medew he was preparing to run the gruelling ING New York City Marathon and on Sunday 3 November 2013, Jim did just that, finishing in 3 hours 56 minutes and 32 seconds. This result saw Jim finish in the top 1/3 of runners at what was a record-breaking event, with more than 50,700 starters and 50,304 finishers – the largest marathon ever run anywhere in the world.
Jim’s trip started at the Australian Consulate-General’s welcome breakfast for the Australian Indigenous Marathon Project team. “Rob de Castella gave a 15 minute speech, offering words of encouragement to all the Australian marathon runners and I met and spoke with two of the girls from the team. All 11 team members finished the race so it was a great result.”
To get to the start of the event Jim had to battle the crowds, intense security and long queues, but it was worth it to hear the American national anthem, a “cannon fire” start followed by Frank Sinatra’s famous song New York New York.
He described the atmosphere at the event as electric, “… like an AFL Grand Final Parade. There were 130 bands playing all along the route – everything from disco to gospel – and it was very inspiring. I particularly loved running through Brooklyn and Queens, where the residents lined the streets in their thousands and called our names as we ran by.”
Jim said he spent the first 5km of the race giving spectators high fives but the cold weather became quite torturous towards the end and he was just happy to finish!
Jim raised over AU$3,000 for his charity the Labrecque-LUNGevity Foundation, thanks to the generous support of his SWP colleagues, family and friends. The total funds raised for this worthy charity exceeded US$58,000.
2013 Perth Color Run
A Very Colourful SWP Social Club Outing!
If you’re a regular reader of South West Personnel’s News you’ll know our staff are a fit and healthy bunch, but the most recent event we were involved in was less about speed and more about enjoying a colour crazy day with friends and family.
The Color Run event is a five kilometre, untimed race in which ‘colour runners’ are doused from head to toe in different colours at each kilometre mark.
On Sunday 3 November four SWP social club members nicknamed ‘Powder to the People’ joined 16,000 other crazy runners and walkers at the 2013 Langley Park event.
Hayley Moore, Amy Morgan, Hannah Sharpe and Rae Beaumont followed the race ‘rules’ by starting the day wearing all white, but they ended it plastered from head to toe in a rainbow of colour!
The Color Run was founded in January 2012 in the USA as an event to promote healthiness and happiness by bringing the community together and in a very short space of time it has grown to more than 170 events in 30+ countries.
Since its inception The Color Run has donated more than $1 million to charities around the world, including the Celebrate Life Foundation and Princess Margaret Hospital Foundation, who were the nominated charities for the Swisse sponsored event in Perth in 2013.
Congratulations to Hayley, Amy, Hannah and Rae for your efforts, and for the contribution you have made to these worthy charity organisations!
Marilyn Hollins (Maz) Personnel Consultant – 10 year anniversary
Marilyn ‘Maz’ Hollins: Loving Life and Celebrating 10 years at South West Personnel
We recently celebrated Maz’s 10-year anniversary at South West Personnel (SWP), so to commemorate this happy occasion we sat down with Maz to ask a few questions about her work at South West Personnel.
In 2003 an employment opportunity presented itself at SWP, which Maz knew to be a good local organisation and one where she knew some of the staff, so she applied and hoped for the best.
10 years later and Maz is loving her life and her role as a Personnel Consultant at SWP. She particularly enjoys the people she meets, saying “it helps to have the gift of the gab!”
Perhaps the best thing about working at SWP according to Maz is that “it’s like a family; Esi treats all her staff as an extension of her own family and we all support each other through the highs and lows of life.”
Maz loves the south west lifestyle where “everything is so easy and accessible”. She enjoys spending time with her two sons and five grandchildren. She leads an active lifestyle and between gym visits found the time to complete her first Surf to Surf fun run on October 13.
Maz became a member of the 10 year club with a few other elite staff members on 30th September 2013. To celebrate Esi presented her with a travel voucher over a long lunch at local restaurant Casellas.
Next year Maz is planning a caravanning trip to Tasmania and hopes to stay fit and healthy, so she can see more of our beautiful countryside in future years.
2013 Surf to Surf Fun Run
South West Personnel: Promoting Fitness and Fundraising in the Local Community
On Sunday 13 October 2013 nine South West Personnel and family members joined the largest ever contingent of fitness fanatics to participate in the Hot FM Surf to Surf Fun Run in Bunbury.
With perfect weather for a 10km run, 5km run or 5km walk, SWP staff and families joined a record 1,128 participants, proudly donning our team uniforms with the slightly tweaked motto “SWP - always on the run”.
This was the first time SWP had competed in the event, and were all very happy to be involved in one of the south west’s largest community events of the year. Supporting this event confirms SWP rich history of supporting community events such as Beach Volleybal, Chefs Long Table Lunch and South Bunbury Junior Football to name a few.
Fun Run Committee Chair Tegan Eldridge praised SWP for their participation, saying “it’s a real achievement for their organisation to enter such a large team.”
Over $25,000 was raised with all funds going towards the City of Bunbury Surf Life Saving Club and their summer beach safety campaign.
Next year’s event is scheduled for Sunday 19 October and planning has already begun at SWP to field an even larger team.
