Big-hearted Boston Scientific employees were celebrating recently after breaking the Guinness World Record for the largest number of people cycling exercise bikes simultaneously and raising a phenomenal €25,000 for their chosen charity of the year, Ábalta.
The 450 employees scrambled onto their exercise bikes and cycled together non-stop for 10 minutes thereby securing their rightful place in the Guinness World Records. This is not the first time that Boston Scientific employees have achieved such a feat; in 2005 a record was set for the longest basketball game.
Managing director of Boston Scientific, Paraic Curtis, congratulated the employees who took part in this world record breaking feat which involved months of planning and organising.
“Employees undertake these fundraising events in their own personal time and I would like to thank them for their tremendous efforts and generosity in raising so much money for charity. The money raised through the Guinness World Record event together with our previous fundraising initiatives this year has helped us to exceed our €50,000 target for Ábalta six months ahead of schedule. Our charity year runs from April to April so we will continue fundraising for Ábalta until then, with lots more events organised such as Boston’s Got Talent in November,” he said.
Each year employees nominate a charity and embark on a number of fundraising initiatives. The ‘Charity of the Year’ initiative was established in 2005 as a means for Boston Scientific and its employees to give back to the community within which they work and live. Since its inception Boston Scientific, together with employees, has donated more than €600,000 to local charities through this initiative.
Ábalta is a school which was set up in 2001 by parents to cater for the specific education needs of children diagnosed with autism. It is regarded as a centre for excellence in the education of children with autism and is the only ABA (Applied Behaviour Analysis ) school in the west of Ireland. It operates out of two premises in Galway city and caters for 18 children. One of Ábalta’s future goals is to locate premises for a custom built school to cater for 30 to 40 children.
