To build on the success of ETL’s charity committee’s work, ETL Cares was launched as a primary scheme to provide charity support. Through this scheme, ETL work with a focus charity each year, with volunteering and fundraising activities to assist in their vital work and raise awareness for the charity.
At the start of the year, ETL’s employee forum chose Herefordshire-based charity, The Little Princess Trust, as ETL’s focus charity for 2025. The charity provides free real hair wigs to children and young people, up to 24 years old, who have lost their own hair through cancer treatment or other conditions. They also fund childhood cancer research, searching to find kinder and more effective treatments.
It was agreed that for all money raised throughout the year, ETL would match the funds to add to our pot with an aim of raising £7,000 by the end of 2025.
Exceeding Expectations: Our Initial Fundraising Surge
The fundraising started with a spring art auction. Budding artist and ETL employee, Rebecca Lyons, created 8 framed prints which were auctioned off to our employees. Through generous bids, £362 was raised and, with ETL’s contribution, a total of £724 was raised.
On 27th April, Indra O’Brein decided to take part in the 26.2 mile London Marathon to raise money for the charity through a sponsorship campaign. The campaign was very successful as a total of £2,404 was raised through her campaign and ETL’s matched funds.
After just two fundraising activities, ETL had already nearly reached the halfway mark to meet the year-end target of raising £7,000.
A Summer of Volunteering, Hair Cuts and the Start of Walk For Wigs
As Spring came and went and the summer months started, two visits were scheduled to The Little Princess Trust headquarters for our employees. Whilst there, our employees had a tour of the site, learned more about the charity’s incredible work, including a demonstration of how the wigs are hand-crafted, and volunteered by sorting through hair donations.
“Volunteering at the Little Princess Trust was an incredibly rewarding experience. It was inspiring to witness first-hand the impact of their work. Seeing how they transform donated hair into real hair wigs for children and young people experiencing hair loss was truly moving. As the focus charity for ETL Systems, having the opportunity to support them gave me a deeper appreciation of the dedication and compassion that drives their team every day.” – Joanna Gower, Director HR, People & Culture
At ETL’s yearly summer party, the fundraising continued with a summer raffle for our employees. This included prizes such as Amazon vouchers, Little Princess Trust goodies and, most prized of all, 5 extra days of annual leave. The raffle raised a fantastic £1,132 to add to our fundraising pot.
Donations to the charity were not just provided in monetary form. Newly-wed employee Agata and summer intern Tudor, decided to brave the chop and donated their own hair to the charity to be made into wigs. Agata donated 13 inches, whilst Tudor donated 15 inches.
In July, our Walk for Wigs challenge officially started. From 1st July until 30th September, the full ETL team were challenged to log any distances covered from walking, running, cycling etc. A target of 5000km was set, which is the distance between the Hereford head office in the UK to our newest site in Montreal, Canada. For every 1000km logged, ETL pledged to donate £500 to The Little Princess Trust.
The challenge saw employees from across our global offices taking part in different outdoor activities, whilst sending in photos of their efforts. From coastal treks to mountain hikes, alpaca farm trails to river rowing, everyone was enjoying the summer whilst supporting this great cause.
With a tremendous effort from across the ETL team, the challenge was officially completed a month early and prizes were given for the Farthest Distance Logged and Best Selfies. Through the challenge, the company raised a total of £2,500.
A Second Successful Auction & A Visit from The Little Princess Trust
As we made our way into the autumn months, ETL decided to put on another art auction as our Autumn fundraising initiative. This time using pieces created by four of our very own employees. Our colleagues from across the business submitted their bids across a 10-day period, with 14 pieces of art available to bid for.
The auction raised £347, which when added to our fundraising pot, took us beyond our £7,000 target to £7,107 before we’d even finished our fundraising efforts.
In October, another visit was organised, but this time The Little Princess Trust visited ETL at the Hereford site. Co-founder Wendy Tarplee-Morris and CEO Phil Brace had a tour of our site to gain insight into our business and see our employees in action. It was also an amazing opportunity for the staff to meet the people at the heart of this inspiring charity, and to learn more about the vital work they do and see how our efforts would contribute to it.
The Ultimate Festive Countdown: Hair, Health & Prizes
As we headed into our final month, the ETL fundraising efforts weren’t dying down. ETL and its employees planned numerous fundraising events, including Claudia’s sponsored fitness challenge.
On 7th December, Claudia Pereira from our Hook site took part in a sponsored Hyrox race in London. For the race, she pushed her fitness goals to the limit, whilst raising money for our focused charity. She finished the challenge in under 2 hours and raised a total of £230.
For ETL’s Christmas party, in honour of our focus charity, the decided theme was Funky Hair Fiesta, where our employees were tasked to wear a wig or funky hairstyle. Barry Tapping, ETL’s Talent and Early Careers Business Partner, dyed his hair bright red in support of our Christmas party, whilst raising an impressive £270 to the charity.
Our very last fundraising effort for The Little Princess Trust consisted of an employee Christmas raffle. More popular prizes were submitted, again including the ever popular extra holiday days, resulting in a final fundraise of £470.
Ending the Year with a High
Thanks to the incredible efforts of our team, by the end of the year, ETL had raised a total of £8,077 for the Little Princess Trust charity, which would create 11 wigs for children and young people experiencing hair loss due to cancer treatment and other conditions.
In January, Co-founder Wendy Tarplee-Morris and Relationships Manager Kim Musson visited our Hereford site for a final time, where ETL officially handed over our cheque for all the money raised during 2025.
As a company, we all came together to exceed our fundraising target, whilst gaining a huge insight into The Little Princess Trust and the support and help they give to children, young people and their families.
To learn more about The Little Princess Trust and the vital work they do, please visit their site: The Little Princess Trust