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July 2023

The start of summer this year has been all about charity, the spirit of giving, and keeping our staff healthy and active.

Each year, Women In Property run a Step into Summer Challenge, in which teams of 4 participate for two weeks in a national bid to walk as many steps as they can. This is in aid of two amazing charities – Girls Out Loud and Women’s Aid. This year, eight of our female staff took part and together walked the equivalent of over 2 million steps – an average of 20,000 steps each per day! Our two teams placed in the top 10, with the Red Hot Chili Steppers finishing in 3rd and the Step Sisters finishing 8th out of 84 teams. Also finishing in the top 10, Angela Way and Margaret Gray finished 6th and 7th in their individual walking out of over 200 participants. Well done ladies! The challenge raised over £2,000 for the two charities and we look forward to gearing ourselves up for next year’s challenge.

Assisting with building up the steps for our team was our Rybka Ceilidh in aid of Highland Hospice on Friday 30th June. We welcomed colleagues, their partners, our friends in the industry and their guests with almost everyone taking part in the traditional ceilidh dancing. Well done to everyone who kept pace with the excellent Bottle Island Ceilidh Band. The band comprised of Roland Fraser on fiddle, Alan Ferguson on keys, Graham MacDonald as multi-instrumentalist and vocalist, and of course our very own Chairman, David MacLeod, on mandolin and the banjo. See below a few photos for those who couldn’t make it, and we hope you can join us next year. Through ticket entry, we collectively raised £848.75 for Highland Hospice, a charity that means a lot to some of our staff. This money will contribute to the amazing work they do to support people with life limiting illness across the North of Scotland.

Finally, at the beginning of July, 6 of our staff donated blood in Inverness, Edinburgh and Glasgow for NHS Scotland. With each pint of blood having the ability to be received by up to 3 people, this blood drive has the potential to save 18 lives. We strongly encourage our industry to donate blood if you are fit and able. Find out where and how to give blood here: Scotblood | Homepage.

We wanted to thank everyone who contributed to making Rybka a fun, inclusive and people-orientated company, by taking part in/organising all of the above!