Staff at a Brighton call centre are trying to break a world record in aid of Sport Relief today (Friday 23 March).
Two hundred employees at Domestic and General (D&G) hope to beat the record for the most people to row 100 metres on a Concept 2 rowing machine in a one-hour relay.
The record currently stands at 164 so to be in with a chance each person will have to row the distance in less than 20 seconds.
The record attempt marks the culmination of a week of Sport Relief activities at the Queen Square call centre, which provides jobs for more than 700 people.
Already this week employees have climbed the height of Everest on a step machine and cycled 1,667 miles to mark the distance between each of D&G’s European offices.
Call centre manager Maxine Stinton raised £450 by shaving her head and other donations were made through team challenges and bake sales.
In total the company hopes to raise £5,000 for Sport Relief, supporting the charity’s efforts to end world poverty.
After today’s rowing efforts volunteers will man the phones from 6pm to midnight to take calls as the public donate off the back of national TV coverage.
Ben Dale-Gough, site operations manager, said: “Once again Brighton is an official flagship town for Sport Relief and there seems to be more fundraising activity than in previous years which is fantastic.
“We hope that doing all we can to raise awareness and donations we will encourage more people to donate.”
D&G is a longstanding supporter of Sport Relief. Every two years staff collectively volunteer 600 hours of their time to man the phones. In 2010 volunteers recorded more than £70,000 of donations in just a few hours.
