A week of fitness and fundraising

Surprisingly along with my offer of employment to join Morgan McKinley was an invitation to take part in the Unicef 10k.

At the time I wondered how it would reflect to my new employer if I didn’t participate so readily accepted and was swiftly signed up without having too much time to think. However 7 weeks into my new role and with the run fastly approaching I am thankful to be working for a business that is both socially responsible whilst being concerned for its employees' health.

A staggering 21 people out of 40 from the Morgan McKinley Hong Kong office competed last weekend to raise money for underprivileged children in Hong Kong.This recently got me thinking about what events were taking place in our city to support the people of the devastated islands of the Philippines since Haiyan obliterated entire cities like Tacloban.

The first fundraiser I attended this week, which could hardly be classed as fitness but yielded fantastic results, was a Cocktail Typhoon Haiyan relief party at Oolaa which raised a whopping 160k HKD in no less than 3 hours from raffle ticket and drinks sales, the generosity of the people that attended was phenomenal and extremely heart-warming.

Next on the worthy event calendar for me were Pure Gym, when 5 Personal Trainers took time out of their schedules to run a high-energy 1.5 hour long body combat class (usually run by 1 PT). 55 people attended and all donated to Haiyan Relief, some donated thousands of dollars in an auction which ran throughout the duration of the class.

Morgan McKinley Hong Kong has also teamed together with Pure in Admiralty to run a yoga session for its staff this afternoon, another great way of combining fitness with fundraising.

Being a Hong Kong resident that has been glued to the news every day since Haiyan took place, it is great to see all the hard work that people have put into raising money. None of these fundraising events in isolation are going to rapidly change the lives of those affected in the Philippines or for local causes but the more of these that take place the more impactful we can be.

Is your employer, health club, local business doing their bit to help?

By Coffee Wang