P-P-P-Pick up a parcel of penguins

20/12/2007

A huddle of North East water workers are going to be c- c- c- cold this Christmas – for a good cause!

Eleven Northumbrian Water employees are to brave the freezing temperature of the North Sea to help save lives.

Cara Hall, Jill Young, Ken Black, Kathryn and Stewart Waugh, Andrew Blakemore, Karen Sandell and Alistair Baker from County Durham, Frank Bozic and Markus Saelzer from Washington, Tyne & Wear, and Dave Whiteley from Tynemouth, are to don penguin suits and take part in the Boxing Day Dip in Sunderland to raise vital funds for the water company’s adopted charity, WaterAid. 

While the penguins will be flapping their flippers and waddling in water, more than one billion people in the developing world struggle daily with poverty and disease because they don’t have clean, safe water.  2.6 billion people don’t have anywhere safe and hygienic to go to the toilet. 

Five thousand children die every day from diarrhoeal diseases such as cholera, typhoid and dysentery, caused by unsafe water and poor sanitation.

Northumbrian Water’s Andrew Blakemore, whose wife Fiona and mother-in-law Frances Crooks made 20 costumes, said: “The Boxing Day Dip has become an institution and beats Boxing Day lethargy.  This is the third time that Northumbrian Water employees have taken part.  It’s a fun – although cold! – way to burn off Christmas calories and raise vital funds for charity at the same time.”

The water workers will be joined by friends and family, making a total of 18 penguins and two fish.

WaterAid works in 17 countries in Africa, Asia and the Pacific region to enable the world’s poorest people to access clean, safe water, effective sanitation and hygiene education.

Anyone wishing to sponsor the Christmas parcel of penguins and help give people in the developing world a future should log onto the online giving page www.justgiving.com/penguindippers. 

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For further information please contact Alison Mosquera on 0191 3016 722.