First Choice’s Comic Relief (red) hotline!

The First Choice Red Nose Day campaign is now in full swing. As well as a variety of activity across our retail stores, First Choice Airways and in a host of overseas resorts, three weeks of activity at our Manchester Call Centre will reach a crescendo when over a hundred volunteers will give up their Friday night to man the Comic Relief donation hotline as part of “Operation Fundraiser”!

At 5.30pm on Friday 16 March, our National Sales Centre will close, but rather than bid their colleagues a “nice weekend”, our staff will enjoy a light meal and a bit of banter… Then, at 7pm, just as the rest of the country will be tuning in to the Red Nose Day televisual extravaganza on BBC1, the First Choice staff (by day) will turn into the ‘Comic Relief Volunteers’ (by night) when they return to their posts, don their red noses and work through the night taking calls from viewers who call the dedicated Comic Relief number.

Julia Socket, Head of the National Sales Centre, said: “We are currently training all our volunteers to take the web donations in order that we are ready for our first calls at 7.00 on the night. We’re determined to raise as much money as we can for Comic Relief as well as ensuring the staff have a fantastic night. I can’t thank the team enough for getting behind all the fundraising and for giving up their time for such a worthy cause. It’s fantastic that the call centre and our staff can play such an important role in making Comic Relief the biggest this year.”

The Manchester Call Centre has hosted a range of fundraising events as part of ‘Operation Fundraiser’. These include a young lady called Fiona ‘auctioning’ kisses (where no monies will be refunded should the quality of the kiss not be up to scratch!), a ‘Get Out Of Here’ raffle, where a £1 ticket can win staff an extra day’s holiday, a ‘You Curse - You Pay’contribution for anyone that mumbles even the mildest of swear words, and much, much more!

On the big day itself, each volunteer will also be invited to a Grand Buffet, receive a Comic Relief Goody Bag, and be in with a chance of winning a prize every hour, on the hour, including Comic Relief T-shirts signed by Girls Aloud, the Sugababes and Gary Lineker, meals for 2, phones from BT, DVD players and, for the person that takes the highest amount of donations on the night, a luxury holiday for two!

Red Nose Day 2007 is all about doing something BIG to transform someone else's life forever… So, whatever you decide to do or donate, do something and help make this the biggest and best Red Nose Day yet with First Choice Holidays!

How to donate:

You can help Comic Relief make a big difference by making a donation through your First Choice Travel Shop/Holiday Hypermarket in a number of ways.

• You can use our Foreign Exchange Bureaus to pledge cash at any of our branches throughout the UK
• You can also help us boost the charity coffers by donating your loose change in our collection tins in all First Choice branches in the UK
• You can help by sponsoring our agents in their weird and wacky activities
• For a list of more activities taking place across the UK please visit our website - firstchoice.co.uk/rednoseday