Starting on Sunday 3 July, the pub company asked staff across its seven pubs to track the number of steps they took in a day using their smart phones or fit watches, with the aim of walking 52,578,283 steps, the equivalent to the circumference of the earth.
Co-founder and owner of Cheshire Cats Pubs & Inns Tim Bird, who operates the company alongside Mary McLaughlin, said the pubcos people manager Jennifer Gresty, initially came up with the idea as a team building exercise, but raising the money for charity as well was “mind blowing”.
He said: “We didn't just do round the world in 80 days, it was around the world twice in 80 days.
“The fact we did it twice was mind blowing.
Really say thank you
“It gave [the team] a fun thing to do while they were working really hard.”
Participants were asked to log the number of steps they took daily, including steps counted in and out of work, with managers then tasked with organising a tally for each pub.
The team exceeded their initial target, walking 115,678,608 steps in total and raising £3,586, though donations are still coming in and are estimated to have now surpassed £5,000, to be split between charities Hospitality Action and Action Against Hunger.
Other fundraising events included a 5-a-side football tournament, a 100-mile ‘cycle safari’ across Cheshire and Staffordshire, pub quizzes, rum tastings, and summer village fetes.
Bird added: “Times are not easy and giving money away isn't easy at the moment either, so we're pleased.”
Times are not easy
Culminating on Tuesday 20 September, the pubco, which operates sites in Cheshire, Newcastle under Lyme, and Staffordshire, closed all its sites to host staff and their families at the Three Greyhounds Inn, Knutsford, Cheshire to celebrate the achievement with a BBQ and a prosecco or two.
Additionally, as a final competition, all seven pubs battled it out at the BBQ to be named winners of the Cheshire Cat Sports Day, which included an old-fashioned egg and spoon race, sack race and three-legged race, with the Cholmondeley Arms named the overall winners.
The Fitzherbert Arms pub in Staffordshire was crowned the team who walked the most steps while the price for the best team effort in raising the most money went to the Mainwaring Arms, Newcastle under Lyme, with the pub’s general manager, Rebecca, crowned ‘charity champion’.
Bird said: “Closing the pubs, we thought this could be so unpopular, but actually the customers completely got it and everyone was so supportive, so but it was just amazing, and we were able to thank everyone, they had a great time.
“We've never had the opportunity to really say thank you to all the team that have been with us through the ups and downs of lock downs.”