WD in the Community
The team at WD is always up for a challenge and we love being able to take them on as part of helping charities local to Taunton. Take a look below at some of the weird and wonderful challenges we’ve taken part in over the past few years, and feel free to contact us if you would like to nominate a charity or particular challenge that you’d love to see the WD team take on!
2023
WD Charity of the Year
Reminiscence Learning
We are now thrilled to announce that our charity partner for the year is the amazing Reminiscence Learning, which specialises in providing expert Dementia care in and around Somerset.
We’re even more delighted that they’ve allowed us to partner with them in this, their 20th anniversary year and we intend to do our bit to make sure that it’s a year to remember!
As always, our efforts will include both fundraising and raising awareness of the charity’s cause and events throughout the year, and we can’t wait to get started on both. We’ve already discussed some exciting fundraising challenges for the year, so watch this space for more information!
Stand Up for Cider 2023
After the success of 2022, the popular Stand up for Cider competition is back for 2023! The hard efforts of Genius Events make this an easy one for Walpole Dunn to get behind and support.
The competition is open to up-and-coming comics and enables them to put their material to the test in front of a packed audience and alongside a professional headline act. The winners of each heat, as determined by the audience, meet in the Grand Final to crown King or Queen for the year.
Buy your tickets soon to avoid missing out on a great night of cider and laughs!
2022
WD Charity of the Year
Secret World Wildlife Rescue
Walpole Dunn is pleased and excited to announce that we will be supporting Secret World Wildlife Rescue, our Charity of the Year 2022!
SWWR is a wonderful charity that rescues sick, injured and orphaned wildlife across the South West of England to then rehabilitate and release them.
The charity does a fantastic job preventing suffering for the British wildlife by following its motto: RESCUE - REHABILITATE – RELEASE
SWWR inspires and shares its wealth of knowledge with onsite learning, conferences, school and college visits and many more events during the year! Find out more about how the charity offers these services through the support of local businesses and its army of volunteers - https://www.secretworld.org/.
Charity Ball
After their hard work volunteering, the youngsters of Team WD were back in their glad rags for the Secret World Wildlife Rescue charity ball in October!
The team resisted the urge to follow the 'Under the Sea' fancy dress theme, but managed to make full use of the bar and casino!
It was a great night for a great cause and the team even managed to come away with a new company mascot!
Mucking In
In October, the youngsters of TeamWD downed the calculators and donned the wellies as they spent a day helping on site at Secret World Wildlife Rescue. The team helped the site staff clear out old overgrown fox pens to make space for any new visitors that might need care this year.
Secret World Wildlife Rescue does such a brilliant job in caring and rehabilitating injured and sick wildlife, the team was only too happy to help out for a few hours and had great fun doing it.
SkyDive
In our biggest event of the year, Team WD took to the skies on a clear August morning at Dunkeswell Airfield. Jumping from 15,000ft, Nick and Elisa hurtled through the air in the name of our Charity of the Year, Secret World Wildlife Rescue, raising over £1,500 in the process! Although bad weather postponed the original date, Nick will also be completing the wing-walk in early Spring 2023!
Ferne Animal Sanctuary Dog Show 2022
On 4 September, Ferne Animal Sanctuary will be holding its annual dog show. There will be a variety of fun classes, ‘have-a-go’ agility courses, and stalls and attractions for the whole family.
Walpole Dunn is thrilled to be sponsoring the ‘Best Trick’ class, and lending its support to Ferne Animal Sanctuary in their staple event of the year.
The Ferne Dog Show provides much needed proceeds that allows the Sanctuary to continue to care for all animals in need, all year round.
Find out more about the event and how you can support Ferne Animal Sanctuary at
https://www.ferneanimalsanctuary.org/about-ferne/events/
Stand Up for Cider 2022
After the success of 2021, the popular Stand up for Cider competition is back for 2022! The hard efforts of Genius Events make this an easy one for Walpole Dunn to get behind and support.
The competition is open to up-and-coming comics and enables them to put their material to the test in front of a packed audience and alongside a professional headline act. The winners of each heat, as determined by the audience, meet in the Grand Final to crown King or Queen for the year.
Buy your tickets soon to avoid missing out on a great night of cider and laughs!
2021
WD Charity of the Year
Bibic
We are excited to be supporting bibic as our 2021 Charity of the Year! Bibic is a national charity based in Langport, Somerset. It delivers therapeutic programmes to young people up to 25 years old with developmental and neurological difficulties, with or without diagnosis.
Stay tuned for updates on how we're supporting bibic this year!
Website: https://bibic.org.uk/
Miles 4 Bibic Challenge
Team WD got moving! The entire team got involved in attempting to do as many miles as possible in 5 days, in whatever way imaginable – some ran; some walked; some cycled; and some even rowed! After a gruelling week of cold and wet weather, the team eventually smashed through the 200 miles target and raised £440 in the process.
Somerset Super League
Walpole Dunn hosted the Somerset Super League; a charity 5-a-side football tournament in aid of our Charity of the Year, bibic. The event was held on 24 July at The Castle School in Taunton.
The event was attended by members of the community and local businesses, including Albert Goodman, Cardstream, Cotton Motors and Really Awesome Coffee. It was a fun day out for all, with lots of casual networking, and great support shown to the teams and bibic.
Find out more about the event, including winners, here.
Ferne Animal Sanctuary Dog Show 2021
On 5 September, Ferne Animal Sanctuary will be holding its annual dog show. There will be a variety
of fun classes, ‘have-a-go’ agility courses, and stalls and attractions for the whole family.
Walpole Dunn is thrilled to be sponsoring the ‘Best Trick’ class, and lending its support to Ferne
Animal Sanctuary in their staple event of the year.
The Ferne Dog Show provides much needed proceeds that allows the Sanctuary to continue to care
for all animals in need, all year round.
Find out more about the event and how you can support Ferne Animal Sanctuary at
https://www.ferneanimalsanctuary.org/about-ferne/events/
Stand Up for Cider 2021
Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the popular Stand up for Cider competition was unfortunately cancelled in 2020. But through the hard efforts of Genius Events, Stand up for Cider is back on for 2021, and Walpole Dunn is pleased to once again sponsor this fantastic event!
The competition is open to up-and-coming comics and enables them to put their material to the test in front of a packed audience and alongside a professional headline act. The winners of each heat, as determined by the audience, meet in the Grand Final to crown King or Queen for the year.
Buy your tickets soon to avoid missing out on a great night of cider and laughs!
2020
WD Charity of the Year
St Margaret's Hospice Care
We’re thrilled to be supporting St Margaret’s Hospice Care in its 40th Anniversary year. With its specialist in-patient 24-hour unit in Taunton, the Hospice provides high-quality, compassionate care to local patients and their families coping with the struggles of life-limiting illness. In the last year, the team of 300 staff and 1,200 volunteers supported more than 4,900 people across Somerset.
St Margaret's Walk to Remember - 18/10/2020
On 18 October the Walpole Dunn team took part in 'A Walk to Remember' in aid of St Margaret's Hospice Care.
Our planned walk would begin at Fyne Court and loop back around to finish at Broomfield, covering a total of 8.9 miles. A few wrong turns and some minor backtracking meant that our final distance was closer to 10 miles and we were all happy to see the finish line 5 hours after starting! Fortunately, we had dry weather and clear skies so that we could take in the spectacular views that the walking guide promised.
Like many charities, the Hospice's funding has been badly affected by Covid-19. We are so happy that we were able to raise an amazing £662.50 and grateful to everybody who donated.
St Margaret's Hospice Fire Walk - 5/3/2020
March 2020 saw the Walpole Dunn team participate in its most dangerous charity event to date – the St Margaret’s Hospice Fire Walk! On a chilly night at the Hospice centre in Taunton, we gathered with more than 50 other thrill seekers to test our nerves walking over wood and coals at temperatures reaching more than 500℃. Nerves really started growing when the event host attempted to demonstrate the effect of anticipation by breaking arrows with his neck, and the team was relieved to find that firewalking wasn’t half as scary as that looked and everyone thoroughly enjoyed the experience. The event raised over £10,000 for the Hospice, and we were thrilled to contribute over £900 in donations towards the total.
Stand Up for Cider
As Somerset locals, we were excited to continue our involvement in cider-based events and co-sponsor this year’s Stand Up for Cider competition, itself in its sixth year. The competition is open to up-and-coming comics and enables them to put their material to the test in front of a packed audience and alongside a professional headline act. The winners of each heat, as determined by the audience, meet in the Grand Final to crown King or Queen for the year.
2019
WD Charity of the Year
Somerset Sight
Somerset Sight celebrated its centenary year in 2019 and we were delighted to join them for a number of events. The charity provides services, training and leisure activities that aim to help maintain independence and improve the quality of life of anyone affected by sight loss.
Website: https://www.somersetsight.org.uk/
Dining in the Dark - 6/12/2019
A popular annual event in the Somerset Sight calendar, “Dining in the Dark” consisted of a two course meal eaten whilst wearing a blindfold – certainly an experience like no other! More than 100 attendees joined us at the picturesque Woodlands Castle in Taunton for an insightful evening learning of the difficulties that the visually-impaired live with on a daily basis. The food (or as much of it as we could find!) was accompanied by a round of fundraising games and a disco. We were delighted to provide the prize fund for the round of “Heads or Tails” – with Tony playing game show host!
100K Tandem Bike Ride - 1/6/2019
In June, we were delighted to be co-sponsors of the 100k Tandem Bike Ride, taking more than 60 cyclists on a round circuit starting at the charity’s HQ in Taunton and travelling across the Somerset Levels in the beaming sunshine. Cyclists included both those who are visually impaired and a number who are totalling blind. The event concluded with a hog roast and drinks in the Somerset Sight grounds for the brilliant cyclists and their supporters, and raised in excess of £2,500.
https://www.somersetsight.org.uk/centenary-bike-ride-success
The Ciderthon #RunMilesDrinkCider - 5/5/2019
May 2019 saw some of the WD team – none of whom are regular runners! – take on the daunting Ciderthon, a half marathon with a fruity difference! Under the heat of the spring sun, the team ran (stumbled!) the 13.5 mile course, stopping at each mile checkpoint for a taste of a different local cider. With the remainder of the team bravely standing on the side lines, cheering from the comfort of a beer garden, the team crossed the line together in just under 3 hours. As well as being the event’s main sponsor, the runners raised £381.25 in aid of Somerset Sight.
2018
WD Charity of the Year
Macmillan Cancer Support
Our first Charity of the Year was Macmillan Cancer Support, the national charity providing support to thousands of cancer sufferers and their families across the UK.
Website: https://www.macmillan.org.uk/
#GoSoberforOctober - October 2018
Our first foray into fundraising seemed like a good idea at the start… In October 2018 the entire WD team took part in Macmillan Cancer’s Go Sober for October challenge – a whole 31 days without a drop of the good stuff. Perhaps the less said the better. At least the £500.25 raised went some way towards masking the taste of the alcohol-free beer that our desperation had led us to try!
