Head Resourcing's Sleepy Heads Raise £2,668 for Byte Night

Oct. 5, 2009 - PRLog -- Thanks to everyone who supported us for Byte Night on Friday (2nd Oct).  It was an interesting night and definitely an eye-opener. It's still not too late to donate. Visit http://www.justgiving.com/Sleepy-Heads

Check out our summary of the night's events:

Homelessness is a big problem for young people in Scotland and over 75,000 people find themselves homeless each year through no fault of their own.  1 in 3 attempt suicide, 1 in 7 are either physically or sexually assaulted and this increases to 1 in 2 after one week of being on the street.  A frightening statistic if ever there was one.  100 people took part in Byte Night on Friday night at Holyrood Park and raised just under £500,000.  Byte Night was taking place in several locations around the UK - but we had the worst weather!

Our evening started in true shambolic style after our Nick Faulding-Middleton was detained by Parliament security for possessing an offensive weapon. They wouldn’t accept the (in hindsight, slightly ridiculous) pleas of the Sleepy-Heads that he was only packing weapons to cut cheese with….
The parliament staff provided plentiful food and drink and we met some young homeless people who had been helped by the charity. Pretty humbling stuff.


Then on to the quiz – our team was joined by some lovely fellas from Cisco, and the hybrid ‘Sleepy Cisco-Heads team’ went on to claim a fantastic 2ND PLACE, after being pipped to the post by the exceptionally brainy E&Y team.

The evening was rounded up in the parliament by a Samantha Mumba look-a-like weather girl informed us, in what was supposed to be a sympathetic tone, that the weather forecast was horrendous with 60mph winds and torrential rain on its way.   And then we were all packed off to brave the elements.

We joined our fellow ByteNighters in a small marquee that had been set up in Holyrood park, to while away that last hour before midnight struck. The boys drank, mingled and heckled during the raffle and auction. The girls sat on the floor and munched our way through several bags of cheesy puffs washed down with Somerfield finest wine. When the bells struck the witching hour, the Sleepy-heads legged it out of the tent to grab the finest piece of muddy, trampled, wind-lashed ground to lay our tarpaulin on for the night.

Midnight – After we had scrapped over who would sleep next to who, fought with our sleeping bags, layered up our clothes and Lee had checked out the gents toilets, we bedded in for the night. Much hilarity as we tried to eat our cheese board in gale force winds whilst holding brollies and hats on. At this point Bendle went AWOL. He could be heard but not seen, a common theme throughout the night.  

1am - Settling down, all tucked up in our sleeping bags and inside our survival bags chatting and wondering if the wind would like to stop for a little while. Some of us managed to get a little sleep (in fact Fiona was lightly snoring like a baby from the minute the pen-torch went out), and others dozed on and off, occasionally being roused by the still-wandering Bendle howling M-People tunes up to the moon.

3am – The cold is kicking in, and we are all trying to keep the rain out of our survival bags, and mostly failing. At this point we all are wishing we were at home in our beds and vowing never to do this again.  

5am - We are all very cold, very wet and very very tired and still battling the elements.. only an hour to go until home time. It's still dark and the reality of people forced to sleep outside is starting to hit home.. Lee grabs her wet mobile, and orders two taxis to take us all home at 6…the minute we are allowed to leave.

6am - Home time - Tired and cold, we pack up our wet belongings and take the (strangely longer) walk back to the parliament to wait for out taxi home.  It's been a long cold night but worthwhile. It's worth remembering that not everyone gets to take a taxi home at the end of a night and hopefully the money we raised will go a long way to improving facilities for young homeless people in Scotland.

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Head Resourcing are Recruitment Specialists in IT, Accountancy & Finance, HR, Engineering, Sales & Marketing. Named as the fastest growing Scottish recruitment consultancy (UK Sunday Times Fast Track 100, 2006 & 2007).