The ea Consulting Group has launched it charitable arm, the ea Consulting Group Foundation, during eacg’s 10th anniversary celebrations. The Foundation is a registered charity and has selected Radio Lollipop at Great Ormond Street Hospital as its first charity partner.

Cheryl Robson, Director at eacg, said “Radio Lollipop provides an essential service to children in hospitals who are in some cases spending months on wards. Through its dedicated volunteers, Radio Lollipop gives these children comfort and company twenty-four hours a day.”

“The ea Consulting Group Foundation is working with Radio Lollipop London to help manage its team through a greater use of technology, helping to remove volunteers from admin tasks and place more volunteers on the wards with children.

This has really captured imagination of the team here and it has received terrific support from all of our staff.

Andrew Kendall, Chairman of Radio Lollipop London, said “We really appreciate the support provided by the eacg Foundation, their dedication to our cause will help us with our play programme and allow us to spend more time with children in hospital in 2009”.

This year Radio Lollipop Queensland was the joint beneficiary for the 2008 PricewaterhouseCoopers Cool Night Classic fun run. PWC have been running this event in Brisbane for 14 years, each year donating the entry fee to two local charities. The event is held after work and entrants can either run/jog 5.2 kms around the Brisbane city or walk 3 kms.

This year’s November storms forced the event to be cancelled, however, Radio Lollipop was fortunate to still receive the proceeds of almost $23,000 AUD. A number of the sponsors donated items that can be raffled by Radio Lollipop Michael Hill Jewellers donated 3 magnificent watches, Goodlife Health Clubs donated 2 backpacks with towels, water bottles and a 3 month free membership included and Bernie O’Brien (Aka Mr Bojangles) donated $250.00 AUD worth of entertainment.

Although, this year’s event did not go ahead Radio Lollipop Director Sandra Ursino would like to thank Kate and all the staff at PWC for their efforts in organizing this magnificent event.

The Gold Coast had an awesome visit today from the Royal Australian Air Force F111G pilots from 6 SQN at Amberley in Queensland.

The Radio Lollipop studio was packed with pilots telling great stories about flying at astonishing speeds, and performing unbelievable manoeuvres. There was great skill shown at making paper airplanes by the guys, and also some clay planes, which didn’t fly quite so well!

The pilots also brought along a DVD of themselves flying the F111’s filmed from the cockpit which was awesome to watch. After an interview live on air, it was off to visit the kids in the wards. The guys brought along heaps of cool things to give away, like teddy bears and F111 jumpers. They signed some posters, and had their photos taken and answered lots of questions about the Air Force and the jets.

A huge thank you to the pilots from Amberley for travelling (by car!) to the Gold Coast to visit us. The kids and volunteers had an awesome time, and who knows, perhaps there will be a future F111 pilot amongst us??

Veecom Systems in Edinburgh were delighted to help out Radio Lollipop with the good work they do by providing a mobile phone and line, free of charge, to allow people to text in their requests to the station. The new service is designed for friends and relatives of patients to text in requests direct to Radio Lollipop. It will enable people to keep in touch with their friends from outside the hospital, helping to support and entertain the patients at the Royal Hospital for Sick Children.

“This was a simple thing we could do to support a worthwhile local children’s charity, and it we hope it will make it easy for a lot more people to send in their requests” said Nick Gould, Managing Partner of the mobile dealer, who provide a complete range of mobile communication solutions and services to business clients across Scotland (www.veecom.co.uk).

The service will officially launch in January 2009 and is part of a major upgrading programme for the Lollipop studio in Edinburgh. The volunteers at Radio Lollipop (Edinburgh) would all like to thank Veecom Systems for their generous support.

Photograph: Radio Lollipop Volunteer Dougie Robertson receives the mobile phone from Nick Gould.