City Giving Day is one of the flagship events for the City of London, bringing together the City, Livery, Guilds, Clubs, companies, and charities for a massive philanthropic endeavour.
Small businesses and multinational corporations all work together on this fantastic day to participate in a series of events; some are organised by participant groups and others by the Lord Mayor’s Appeal, including the annual ‘Tour de City’ and ‘Tour de Wharf’ static bike challenges.
The aim of the day is to raise as much money and give as much time as possible for the Lord Mayor’s Appeal and the charities it supports. Even though most supporters are participating from outside of the City of London’s limits this year, a record breaking 450+ companies signed up, making City Giving Day 2020 the biggest ever.
For the first time, the Guild of Young Freemen ran an official fundraising event in support of the day. Throughout the month of September members were encouraged to walk, run, cycle, swim, or any other method they could think of to complete virtual circuits of the City of London!
Setting ourselves a target of 692 laps of the ‘square mile’ (a total distance of 692 miles) to co-incide with Alderman William Russell being the 692nd Lord Mayor, an enthusiastic team of Young Freemen set to work covering as great a distance as they could.
While we weren’t able to reach that target, we were able to cover an impressive 459 miles – an average of 28.7 miles for each of the 16 participants; close to 3 miles farther than a marathon!
We were delighted to raise an amazing £305.00 to be distributed between the Master’s Charity (The Duke of Edinburgh’s Award) and the Lord Mayor’s Appeal, and cannot wait to see what exciting challenge will be set for next year’s City Giving Day.
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