The Sussex Newspaper - Great news for a great county!

The winner of the Basepoint balloon race recently held to raise money for Hampshire and West Sussex charity, Smile Support & Care, was a balloon found literally hundreds of miles away – across the Channel in the Netherlands!

Basepoint sold a total of 201 ‘race’ balloons for £5 each to local businesses across ten of its centres located in Hampshire and West Sussex, which joined forces to help Smile Support, a charity providing invaluable care to families with disabled children and young adults living in the region. The balloons were released at an event in October, and eagle eyes were asked to look out for balloons until the closing date of 30th November – the balloon that had travelled the furthest distance would be deemed the winner. 

Amazingly, the winning balloon was found approximately 350 miles away from its original start point, Waterlooville, Hants, by Jos and Anneke Molenaar of the Netherlands. They won a £50 prize for finding the balloon which they kindly donated to Smile Support & Care. The original owner of the balloon was Nicola Patrick of Data2Impact, who are located in Basepoint’s Andover centre.

Karen Osborne, Area Manager for Basepoint, comments: “When we decided to hold the balloon race, we had no idea that the balloons would travel quite so far, so we were stunned when Jos and Anneke told as they had found a balloon in the Netherlands!  We want to thank all of those people who bought balloons and showed their support.  We’re still calculating the monies raised from our event and will announce it in the New Year.”

The balloon in second place was found in Rochester in Kent 95.8 miles away, and was purchased by Stuart Wallace of International Sports & Leisure in Basepoint’s Waterlooville Centre – they will receive £50 of stationary.  All contestants and winner details are listed on the Basepoint website (www.basepoint.co.uk).

Basepoint’s ten participating centres in Hampshire and West Sussex are located in Andover, Basingstoke, Gosport, Havant, Romsey, Southampton, Waterlooville, Winchester, Crawley and Newhaven. All offer modern, convenient office accommodation and support infrastructure packages to new and early-stage companies within a supportive and secure environment.  For further information, please visit: www.basepoint.co.uk