Birkett Long 200 years celebrations continue

We are continuing our 200-year anniversary celebrations with random acts of kindness in the local community and a look back at our history.

Random acts of kindness

This month, the Administration team gave Easter gifts to Ricky from our storage provider, MJF, and also to Shelley Cumbers, a solicitor in our Divorce and Family team for being so helpful with swears for clients.

Melanie Loxley, also in the Divorce and Family team, sent biscuits and flowers to say thank you to local schools Copford Primary and Heathlands Primary for keeping their students learning throughout the pandemic.

Melanie also sent a box of cookies to St Mary’s School where she is a Governor. Principal of the school, Mrs Vipond said: “What a thoughtful gesture - St Mary’s staff were delighted!”

The BLHR and Employment team are regularly sending coffee vouchers to the most engaged attendees at their monthly online HR forums. Click here to find out more about our online events. One happy recipient said: “Many thanks for the random act of kindness and your follow up email! The Costa voucher perked up my day, but the follow-up email was even nicer!”

Our team of independent financial advisers sent vouchers to Rob Bowers, Product Manager and Stewart Turner, Implementation Manager both at Praemium to say thank you to them both for going the extra mile in working with our IFA Team and IT Team to develop a new bespoke IFA Dynamics software system. 

The Business Development & Marketing team donated 400 small Easter eggs to St Andrew's Church, Halstead - the church’s Gateway Halstead Project hid them all around Halstead town on Easter Day for passers-by to find and enjoy.

Whilst our Easter Bunny was doing the rounds, the team also donated 250 Easter eggs to the charity United in Kind in Chelmsford. United in Kind supports local housing, care homes and people living alone. We had some left over and so these were taken to the local Covid vaccination centre at Chelmsford City Racecourse to say thank you to the staff for working during the pandemic.

The Agriculture & Estates team posted cream tea treats, flowers and wine to reconnect with those they have not been in touch with for a while and to say hello. One pleasantly surprised client said “thank you very much for the wonderful gift we received this morning.  It means a lot and was a lovely surprise.”

From our history

Did you know that in 1975 we moved our premises to Essex House on Crouch Street in Colchester and in 1989 we moved to 42 Crouch Street? Birkett Long remained at the heart of Essex House, returning later as part of real estate project on behalf of a client.

Did you know that in 2016 we began offering our staff the opportunity to become Dementia Friends?
The Alzheimer’s Society’s Dementia Friends programme is the biggest ever initiative to change people’s perceptions of dementia. It aims to transform the way the nation thinks, acts and talks about the condition. We have many Dementia Friends in the firm, all having taken part in information sessions where they learned about how to help those living with dementia to live well.

Kind messages of congratulations

We have received many kind messages of congratulations but this month wanted to share one that we received from a local hospice after we delivered 310 ‘calm kits’ to their staff:

Jenny Homewood, Complementary Therapy Team Lead at St Helena Hospice said: “On behalf of us all at St Helena Hospice I would like to say a massive thank you for your special 'Random Act of Kindness' gift for us all. We are very touched by this thoughtful and thought-provoking gift, reminding us to practice self-care and enhance our wellbeing.
We are proud to share your 200th anniversary and your on-going support for St Helena Hospice.
I am reminded of a quote by Maya Angelou “Try to be a rainbow in someone's cloud”, which is very apt as the rainbow image has been significant during the pandemic.
Thank you for being a rainbow to our organisation.” 

With Birkett Long’s random acts of kindness now well underway we are looking forward to being a rainbow in our local communities over the coming month and keeping you updated with what we have in store. 

For more information on our 200 years celebrations contact Jennie Skingsley on 01206 217605 or email: jennie.skingsley@birkettlong.co.uk