CALL CENTRE BOOSTS BIG HAIR DO
Volunteers needed to man phones for Red Nose Day

A local call centre is appealing for 150 volunteers to man the phones on Red Nose Day, 14th March and help Comic Relief raise £22 million to tackle poverty in Africa and the UK.

Contact III, based in Friar Street, Reading, is donating 105 seats to help cover the costs of this year’s Red Nose Day called The Big Hair Do. It is joining more than 170 call centres UK wide to offer 11,000 telephone lines and up to 22,000 call handlers to the charity.

Contact III needs people to take donations over the phone and process donations from 6.30pm to 2am on March 14th. Volunteers do not need experience of call handling, but must be aged over 18 with good communication skills and an eye for detail.

Call handlers will have great fun on the night and could each take calls with donations totalling £3,000 for Comic Relief by working for just four hours. Free food, drink and entertainment will be provided.

Comic Relief was launched in Sudan on Christmas Day 1985 in response to growing needs in the UK and Africa. It has raised more than £250 million since then through Red Nose Day, a UK wide fundraising event organised every two years which culminates in a night of TV treats on BBC One.

This year, members of the public will be encouraged to raise money for the charity by donning wild hair styles from beehives to bobs and mullets to quiffs. Comic Relief promises that every pound donated by the public will help people in poverty to change their lives. It achieves this by covering its costs by donations or support from businesses like Contact III.

Ben Cunliffe, Contact Centre Manager at Contact III said: "We are supporting Comic Relief because we want to help raise money for good causes in the UK and Africa, and because over the years Comic Relief has given every penny raised to good causes while having loads of fun."

"We are proud to be associated with such a great organisation and plan to support Comic Relief for years to come. We hope to see many volunteer call handlers on March 14th."

If you would like to volunteer for Comic Relief with Contact III please call Kirstie Starkey on 01189 500 580 or email kirstie.starkey@contactiii.com

If you wish to donate money to Comic Relief please call 08457 9 10 9 10 (nine ten nine ten). Local rate call charges apply.