Member Article

Yorkshire removals firm commits to doing 50 good deeds for 50th birthday

**- McCarthy’s working with charities, the community and customers to undertake 50 acts of kindness

• Local organisations and individuals encouraged to nominate ideas**

A Yorkshire removals and storage company is celebrating its 50th birthday by promising to do 50 good deeds for the community, charities, customers and employees.

Now almost nine months through the year, McCarthy’s Removals and Storage, which has storage centres in Leeds, Harrogate and Wakefield, is well on its way to having 40 under its belt or in planning for later in the year.

McCarthy’s was set up in 1968 by Mick and Margaret McCarthy with just one van, working from a small terraced house in Leeds. It is now run by their son Mike, and the McCarthy’s Group has a turnover of more than £5million, having diversified into self storage, shredding, business centres and document management, whilst still keeping removals at its core.

The 50 good deeds already undertaken have spanned a large range of activity, such as helping out charities with time, collections or services. These have included assisting St Gemma’s Hospice with its Christmas Tree Collection service by loaning a team and van; doing an in-branch towel collection for Flushdyke Kennels; providing free self storage units for the Yorkshire Air Ambulance and Candlelighters; installing food bank donation points in its Leeds, Harrogate and Wakefield self storage centres; and collecting books for the Zikomo Trust in Malawi.

Other good deeds have been sponsoring community events such as the Ilkley Carnival and Kirkstall Festival, or local sports teams. The company has also helped individual customers who have found themselves in difficult circumstances; handed out Easter eggs to storage centre visitors; left surprise gifts for homeowners in their new house; and encouraged staff to donate their time and energies to volunteer at events or fundraise for charities across the region.

Mike McCarthy said: “We started off the year thinking what could we do to celebrate the achievement of 50 successful years in business. We’re in a fortunate position, and we do often try and help out charities where we can, but we thought it was a great idea to commit to performing 50 good deeds throughout 2018 and spread a little kindness and a few smiles! We’re still looking for things to help with in the final few months of the year – so any charities or events for which we may be able to provide some assistance, please do get in touch.”

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Shona Nutter .