Nick Bratt, national specification manager at Norcros Adhesives has been part of a major fundraising event for the Rainy Day Trust – the Monte Carlo VADO car rally.
The concept of the VADO Rally is that teams of up to four people working in the builders’ and plumbers’ merchant sectors are invited to take part in a ‘banger’ rally. Each team has to purchase a car for less than £500, and then drive it through eight countries to Monte Carlo, before moving on to Nice for an awards dinner. The Rally takes four days and covers over 1,200km from the start in Namur in Belgium – making a 3,500km round trip for participants from the UK. The route then passes through Luxembourg, France, Germany, Switzerland, Italy, Monte Carlo and France.
Each team is set a target of £1,000 to be raised for the Charity, with a trophy awarded to the team that raises the largest amount of money. In the most recent event the winning team raised £4,500 for the Charity. To make things a little more interesting, the Rally is done in fancy dress with different themes each day, and challenges are set for each team to complete during the day.
Nick Bratt was part of the VADO team – VADO being a sister company of Norcros Adhesives within the Norcros Group of companies – and was in a Ford Galaxy which had cost £350!
In total the event attracted 37 cars and 124 people, who had come from over England. Amazingly, all 37 cars completed the rally intact, although one failed right outside the hotel at the finish and had to be scrapped.
In total the event raised a very impressive sum in excess of £65,000 for the Charity. The Rainy Day Trust is a long-established charity which works to provide support for those who have worked in the hardware, home improvement and builders merchant sectors, and require some assistance in retirement or if they have fallen on hard times. The charity was founded in the mid-nineteenth century and has given away more than £1.1m since 2003. In 2012 the charity merged with the Pottery & Glass Trade Benevolent Society.
