Charitable Giving from The Duke!

Wednesday 18th January, 2017|Category: News

We proudly support many amazing charities year after year. Despite being inundated with countless charity requests, we always do our best to support as many as possible, we often donate vouchers as raffle prizes from our AA rosette restaurant, champagne Tea at the Top and in special circumstances an overnight stay!

On top of this, we take part in charity events as a team. As well as boosting team moral it enables us to raise vital funds for so many worthy causes. We wanted to write a post sharing all of our good deeds with you, we hope it inspires other businesses or individuals to do something for charity this year. We know it makes a difference.

Most recently, we participated in Festive Friday, wearing our favourite Christmas jumpers for the day to raise money for St Luke’s Hospice. We also ran (walked!) through the city centre dressed as Father Christmas participating in the Santa Run, which was lots of fun and something we would love to do again! A small team of us participated in filling shoe boxes which were taken to an orphanage in Ukraine and given to children on Christmas morning who would otherwise not receive a present. Contents included basic items that most of us take for granted such as a toothbrush and toothpaste, colouring pencils, a hat and scarf and a small cuddly toy.

We have been privileged to host the launch of two fabulous charities, the first being Little Things and Co, a worthwhile charity who provide clothing for tiny babies who are born too soon. For more information about the charity, please click here to read our blog post.

We also hosted the Plymouth Ladies Charity Club launch. The charity provides financial assistance to children and young adults living in the Plymouth area by supplying them with grants up to the value of £500. Plymouth Ladies Charity Club have held several events here in recent months including the Halloween Ball and Pig Racing event, both to raise funds for those in need.

Shelley Coleman – Trustee, chairperson and organiser extraordinaire of the charity said: “We choose to go back to The Duke time and time again. The staff, in particular Mel who we usually deal with, are always extremely helpful and are happy to help, nothing is too much trouble! This is important when organising events as things tend to change from one moment to the next and time is of the essence. The team make it an easy process and facilitate all of our needs as a charity, we can’t wait to come back again soon!”. We can’t wait to welcome the ladies, the amount they raise and the difference they make is amazing!

We recently supported Children’s Hospice South West by joining up with Princess Yachts who kindly donated tickets to the Theatre Royal performance of Mamma Mia. We created a package for two lucky winners who will be able to enjoy the show and then come back to the comfort of the hotel followed by a full English breakfast the following morning!

We have been collecting stamps for Jeremiah’s Journey as part of the Stamps N All initiative, whereby used stamps can be sent in and recycled, which in turn raise money for charity. If you are interested in this and would like to collect stamps, please click here for details.

We have been the host to many magical Jeremiah’s Journey Balls with past themes including Moulin Rouge, Narnia and most recently the Orient Express – for a full blog on our support of this great local charity click here. They are always fabulous events and are an amazing way to have fun whilst raising vital funds for such a worthwhile cause.

In March last year we also supported Shekinah on International Women’s Day – it was a privilege to support Women’s Space and you can read a full blog on our afternoon here.

As you can see we do our bit for many organisations, but we do have one local charity who are very close to our heart and act as our Charity Partner of the Year. Friends and Families of Special Children provide information, support and services for families with disabled children, many of whom describe the organisation as a life saver.

We love hosting their annual Ball, our Ballroom is transformed for every creative theme that their award winning Founder, Kay O’Shaughnessy envisions! Kay recently won the Venus Award as Inspirational Woman of the Year, click here to read why our Director of Marketing nominated Kay to be recognised for all of what she has achieved. The Ball is their biggest fundraiser of the year and a huge amount of work goes into the evening. They are always visually stunning with Vegas show girls and a snake at their last event! Jonathan Morcom, Duke Directors ran the Plymouth 10k to raise money for the charity, he’s also run a few (!) London Marathons on their behalf and raised £1000’s.

We have most recently been collecting items to make a charity hamper for Friends and Families, with the team donating gifts and items to be used as raffle prizes across the year. This is the second year we have done this and have been overwhelmed with everyone’s generosity for this amazing charity! Gill Parker from the charity added: “Over the years, the Duke of Cornwall have consistently offered support with use of facilities and donations which has enabled us to continue our valuable support throughout the city.”

So asides from weddings, birthdays, meetings, conferences, afternoon tea’s and so much more we like to play our part in the local community. Plymouth is blessed with a fantastic amount of organisations making a difference to local people and we are keen to support as many as we can. The season starts again with a line-up of fabulous fundraisers. In the early part of this year we are hosting a fundraising Ball for Chron’s disease, followed by Friends and Families of Special Children and then the Chernobyl Ball. We look forward to welcoming all guests and hope that the evenings are a huge success and raise lots of money!

We hope that we have given you some inspiration for your business – from saving stamps to attending a black tie dinner and everything in between there is an idea out there for everyone, maybe this is the year for a Skydive!!

If you would like to make a charitable request, please email Jo at j.holford@thedukeofcornwall.co.uk. If we are unable to help please understand that we are doing our best and will keep you in mind for the future.

Happy Fundraising!

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