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This year we are taking our mission to do good to whole new levels with our Cubemas Advent Calendar.
Christmas is a time to give back, which is why we’re determined to spread joy, hope and goodwill by taking on charitable challenges, volunteering to special causes and having some festive fun along the way.
The team arrived on the first day of Cubemas and were greeted with a giant advent calendar, this 6x6ft Christmas miracle would be the home of a series of challenges, fun and sometimes embarrassing tasks.
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We take doing good to whole new levels with our award-winning app development and #TechForGood that has changed lives around the world. But, at Christmas, we focus on our local community impact and helping to challenge our team as part of our C.U.B.Excellent initiative to make our colleagues push themselves out of their comfort zones with tasks to improve company culture and welfare and become #TechiesDoingGood.
See everything we got up to for Cubemas 2017.
The Cubemas Challenges
Each day of advent a member of the team is randomly selected to tear their way through that day’s corresponding window, upon which they will receive a mission, this could be a big task for charity or a small challenge for the team inside the office or a quest for personal betterment.
***Updates daily – come back to read all our seasonal shenanigans***
Cubemas Challenge 1:
On the first day of Cubemas… Get fit. Do good.
We like to try at stay active at CUBE HQ as sitting at desks all day can drain our batteries. One initiative that matches our belief in keeping fit and doing good is GoodGym. We’ve previously joined up with the Bournemouth running group to help paint at a local charity, this time around we ran eight kilometres and volunteered at the Bournemouth Foodbank.
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Nine of us braved a cold December eve to run to the local food collection centre and help to prepare the donations to be distributed to those who need support this winter. To warm up and thank everyone you gave up their time we rewarded the team with a hot chocolate station in the office with marshmallows and sprinkles galore!
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Cubemas Challenge 2:
Leopard learnings and animal adoption.
Our designer Josh opened the second window of Cubemas and was set a personal challenge to research about an endangered animal.
Josh’s mission was to choose any animal he had an interest in, find at least five facts about said animal and then present those facts to the team.
In return, we would sponsor the animal for a year through the WWF adopt an animal scheme… Josh chose the highly at risk Amur Leopard.
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Five facts about Amur Leopards:
Amur leopards are only found around the border areas between the Russian Far East and north-east China, in a range that’s smaller than 2,500 sq km. That’s an area smaller than Cube’s home county of Dorset.
There are only 90 Amur leopards left in the wild.
The Amur leopard is a nocturnal creature that lives and hunts alone.
Individual Amur leopards can have territories of 19–116 square miles, which is the size of 56,144 football fields.
Amur leopards can run at speeds of up to 37 miles per hour and have been reported to leap more than 6m horizontally and 3m vertically.
Cubemas Challenge 3:
Feed the world, feed your mind.
Freerice is a great website that aims to reduce world hunger. As you play Freerice and answer questions correctly, banner ads from sponsors appear on your screen. The money generated from these sponsors is then donated to the World Food Programme, who use it to help the world reach zero hunger.
The team got competitive and answered as many questions as they could during their break time. To be honest, we got so involved that we forgot to keep track of how much rice we raised! It’s easy to get lost in the quizzes and its a great way to learn whilst doing some good, take a look and give it a go.
Cubemas Challenge 4:
Sing for your supper!
In an effort to push people outside of their comfort zones the team had the challenge to turn themselves into a harmonious choir, and in return, they would be rewarded with lunch. Each week we gather for a group meal, it’s a fantastic way to celebrate the week and learn more about each other, but this time they would have to recreate BandAid and earn their lunch.
It wasn’t quite as in tune as we hoped, so we’ll let you enjoy the original rather than subject you to our ear bursting screeches.
Cubemas Challenge 5:
Limber up for reindeer lunges.
Tom opened the calendar and was placed in charge of that day’s group challenge. He had to get people up and out their seats for a lunge line. The team had to lunge to the entire song of his choice, Christmas Time by The Darkness! 3mins 39secs of lunging around the office certainly stretched our legs and brought some grimaces to our faces, but for the effort, a £30 donation was made to Tom’s charity of choice, Great Ormand Street Hospital.
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Cubemas Challenge 6:
Brightening the lives of sick children.
Behind the Cubemas Calendar today, was one of our most heartwarming tasks, sending letters and postcards to children who are unwell and face life-threatening illnesses.
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Post Pals is a small charity run solely by volunteers who are dedicated to making seriously ill children and their siblings smile by the sending of cards, letters, little gifts, support and friendship.
The Post Pals website enables you to read up on the children and discover their stories. I sent a letter to Samuel, a ten-year-old who has cystic fibrosis. Reading about his story and his passions for Minecraft, army figures and unicorns, I hoped sharing a joke might bring a smile to his face this Christmas.
Q. What does a unicorn call their dad? A. Popcorn Andrew's terrible joke
Cubemas Challenge 7:
The soundtrack to Cubemas.
Only the eclectic taste of our Cubies could take you from Mariah to Boney M and Run-DMC.
We’ve put together some of our favourite festive songs to guide you through until Santa arrives.
Have a listen to our Spotify Cubemas Playlist.
Cubemas Challenge 8:
Make a decoration, stop deforestation.
On the eighth challenge of Cubemas, we got very artsy. The team were tasked with making decorations for one of the office trees. And, for every decoration made Cube would plant a tree with one of our fantastic client Global Forest Watch.
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After an artistic and somewhat messy lunchtime, we gathered round to hang our new glittery and bedazzled baubles onto the tree. The good news, the office now looks even more Christmassy. The better news, 39 new trees will be planted, helping to end deforestation and supporting our client’s passion for environmental conservation.
Cubemas Challenge 9:
It’s no secret that we are huge fans of the beach and being based in the sunny south coast resort of Bournemouth means we often get to head down to the seafront.
Sadly, sometimes our favourite place can get littered and messy. We try to do our best to keep the environment clean and have helped clients to build apps to save the ocean from plastics. So as part of our Cubemas Advent Calendar, today’s mission was to do a team beach clean. We headed to the seaside for a lunchtime cleanup, with bin bags and litter pickers aplenty.
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Ten Cube members worked their magic to spruce up the sands, returning with several bags of rubbish, plastics and non-beach friendly items. To reward the volunteers we treated them to some mulled wine to warm them back up and get ready for an afternoon of saving the world in a different way, making tech for good!
Cubemas Challenge 10:
Volunteering to help vulnerable members of our community.
We’re no strangers of Bournemouth Foodbank, having spent time with them for the first day of Cubemas and supporting them with fundraising efforts during last year’s Cubemas campaign. This time round we were generating support from last-minute Christmas shoppers.
A team of Cubes headed down to a local ASDA to support the efforts in generating donations and helping local people in crisis. We spent the day collecting particular items that the Foodbank were in need of, as well as shedding some light on how difficult this time of year is for the homeless community in Bournemouth.
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And that wraps up Cubemas 2018, a massive thanks to the whole team for volunteering their time, doing good and helping those less fortunate than themselves.
Have an epic Christmas!
Published on 10 December 2018, last updated on 16 October 2024