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One Special Day 2023
SpecialEffect’s One Special Day is a big day both here at Skillsearch and throughout the games industry, and this year was no different! As always, we wanted to do something extra special to mark the occasion and raise as much money as possible for the cause.
After lots of brainstorming amongst the team on how we could one-up our fun-filled schedule from last year, we came up with an exciting schedule for the 6th of October, all to bring the team together and get lots of money in the pot for such an amazing charity.
The Dress Code
This year we wanted to see as many different costumes as we could, so we settled on coming in dressed as something beginning with the same initial as your name. Some kept to the games theme of the day and came as video game characters, such as Cassie in her stunning Crash Bandicoot outfit! The theme was enthusiastically embraced by our wonderful team, check out some of the best costumes in our TikTok!
The Auction
First up, a week in advance of the big day, we held an auction. The prize for the highest bidder? Getting to pick the costume for our CEO, Richard, to wear on One Special Day. After last year's inflatable dinosaur, we weren’t sure how it could be topped, but after some back and forth on the auction room floor, Wade reigned successful. And seeing his determination to win, we could only imagine what he had up his sleeve…
Come 9am on the 6th (and 15 minutes struggling in the bathroom to get it on), Richard emerged to make a cup of tea in something we never thought we’d see so early in the morning – a stunning maid costume, even featuring some fluffy ears and garters.
We have to give the utmost props to Richard for not only taking on the costume but also wearing all the accessories throughout his meetings, and refusing to bring in a pair of shorts to wear underneath his stunning dress!
The Breakfast
The next item on the agenda was a full English breakfast, cooked by our ops and marketing team right here in the office! Featuring bacon, sausages, eggs, beans, hashbrowns and toast, with vegan options and condiments galore.
Despite a busy and (only mildly) stressful morning, the admin team whipped up full breakfasts for 32 members of our Brighton HQ – adding £180 to our pot for SpecialEffect!
The Drawing Competition
This year for our lunchtime activity we decided to have a drawing competition. Since everyone was in such exciting outfits, the aim was to draw a member of the team in their outfit, in 15 minutes or less.
Richard was our judge, and took his time to narrow down the pictures until we got our winner…
Congratulations to ED on her win of a 2-hour leave early, to use whenever she likes! And well done to all our other artists who produced some stunning pictures which are now being displayed all over the office.
The Bake Sale
Just as our breakfasts had started to go down, it was time to top back up with our bake sale!
The team really came together here, not only baking up some stunning cakes as well as savouries but even roping in other members of their families to bake us up some goodies.
All the bakes were offered for 50p to £1, but many of us just decided to chuck £10 in the pot and treat it like a baked all-you-can-eat buffet! Between this and the breakfast we were all feeling pretty stuffed by the end of the day🌝
Overall, it’s safe to say this year's One Special Day was a raging success and we will be back to do it all over again next year! Thank you to all our team for all the effort put in, we raised an impressive £531, being doubled to £1,062 thanks to Richard’s kind offer to have the company match the donations made by the team😊
Supporting the amazing work that SpecialEffect does is very close to our hearts here at Skillsearch, and we’re proud to be involved in industry events like One Special Day throughout the year to contribute to the incredible things they do.
If you want to find out more about SpecialEffect and see how you can help, check out their website here, and their One Special Day site here, for all the information.
See you next year🕺😎
