Summer Ball 2011 – Your Charity Donation
Posted 20th September 2011
After missing a couple of years, the Summer Ball made a welcome return in June.
And you were all even more generous than ever, raising a staggering £7,410 from the raffle. A big thank you to everyone who took part. On … Shona Michel (FO Cruise Lines) and Geoff Ridgeon (FO Travel) visited the East Anglia Children’s Hospice (EACH) to present the cheque.
East Anglia’s Childrens’ Hospice EACH supports families and cares for children and young people with life-threatening conditions across Suffolk, Essex, Norfolk and Cambridgeshire. The charity provides care and support wherever the family wishes – in families’ own homes, in hospital or at one of its hospices in Ipswich, Milton and Quidenham. EACH needs to raise around £4.8 million in public donations to deliver their services in 2011, which amounts to more than £13,000 a day, every day of the year.
Shona Michell, New Media and Communications Executive for Fred. Olsen Cruise Lines, who organised the Summer Ball, said:
“We were delighted that our Summer Ball went with such a bang this year! The Directors of all the companies within the Fred. Olsen Group invited their staff and partners to this fantastic evening, and the highlight was a Grand Raffle, with all prizes being donated by our very generous suppliers. These were magnificent, and ranged from bottles of champagne to iPads.
“Our staff chose EACH’s ‘Treehouse Appeal’ to benefit from the proceeds of this year’s raffle, as we have all been deeply moved by the invaluable work that this local charity does to improve the lives of life-threatened children and their families within Suffolk and surrounding areas. Thanks to all our staff and suppliers for helping us to raise the amazing sum of £7,410!”
EACH launched its ‘Treehouse Appeal’ on 16th March 2010, with the daunting task of raising £3 million to fund the construction and outfitting of an all-new, purpose-built children’s hospice in Ipswich. The old hospice in Walker Close in Ipswich opened in 1999 as a pilot project, but demand for services had grown so significantly that the facility was unable to meet the needs of life-threatened children and their families.
To overcome these obstacles, EACH launched the ‘Treehouse Appeal’ following the donation of a four-acre woodland plot in Ipswich by a generous charitable trust. An ambitious fundraising schedule was then drawn up, and it has received a fantastic amount of support from the people of Suffolk and North Essex, and further afield.