Four Pillars Hotels is pleased to announce its designated charity of the year supporting CRY (Cardiac Risk in the Young).  The Oxfordshire based hotel group has drawn up a full programme of activity for 2013 to support this worthy cause and to raise as much money and awareness as possible.

As well as group wide charitable events, each of the six Four Pillars hotels will host a range of activities in which they can individually raise money for the charity. These include participation in the Run to the Beat half marathon and Bristol 10km runs and everything from family fun days and craft fairs to quiz nights and clairvoyance evenings.

Katherine Swingler, HR Director and Head of the Fundraising Committee at Four Pillars Hotels says, “Every year our employees are given the opportunity to nominate a “Charity of the Year” and CRY was our most popular choice. We were deeply touched by the stories of people touched by sudden arrhythmic death and tragically we have employees who have recently been affected by this.  In addition, the testimonials provided by CRY prompted us to choose this very deserving charity.”

Alison Cox MBE, Founder and Chief Executive of CRY says, “We are very grateful to Four Pillars Hotels and, in particular, the fundraising committee for its hard work in putting together a programme of events throughout the year in support of CRY.  Thanks to the continued efforts of supporters across the UK, CRY is able to raise huge levels of awareness of young sudden cardiac death, as well as running a pioneering screening programme to identify young people at risk and providing support to those affected.  We wish Four Pillars every success with their fundraising and awareness events throughout the year.”

CRY was founded in 1995 to provide support and information on cardiac risk in young people. CRY operates cardiac screening programmes, funds cardiac research, provides a support network to young people who have been diagnosed with cardiac conditions and also a bereavement support service to families who have suffered a loss of someone young with a cardiac condition.

Four Pillars Hotels is keen to raise as much money as possible in support of this worthy cause and this year has already raised over £1,500 through merchandise sales and hotel events alone.

For more information on Four Pillars Hotels, please visit www.four-pillars.co.uk

For more information on CRY, please visit www.c-r-y.org.uk

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As part of their Charity of the Year partnership Four Pillars Hotels invited patients and their families from Bristol Royal Hospital for Children to spend the afternoon decorating cakes and biscuits at their Tortworth Court Four Pillars Hotel

It was a wonderful afternoon providing a break for over 16 children and their families from hospital.  There were sticky fingers and big smiles all round, let alone some amazingly decorated cakes and biscuits which would give Mary Berry a run for her money!

Tortworth Court had thought of every detail from providing chef whites and hats to chef’s Ben and Nigel being on hand to help make rocky road and rice crispy cakes and every flavour of icing imaginable!  There was no stopping the creativity as hats and jackets were also decorated!

But this was more than an afternoon of creativity.

Elaine Eastman of the Play Department at Bristol Royal Hospital for Children explains:

“For a child to be able to come out of hospital for half a day and be able to forget about hospital and do normal things is just priceless.  It was lovely to be able to involve siblings and parents because often when you have a sick child in hospital there are very few occasions when the family is all together. Some of the children have life-limiting conditions – so these good memories are so very important for the whole family.”

Liz Heneghan, Human Resources Manager, Tortworth Court Four Pillars Hotel said:

 “It’s been heart warming to see everyone happy and enjoying themselves.  We’re so pleased to be able to make a small difference to the children and their families by bringing them out of hospital and into our world for the afternoon.” 

Charlotte Williams, age 12 who left with a bag of delicious goodies and beaming from ear to ear said:

“It was amazing!”

The Bristol Royal Hospital for Children cares for over 60,000 children from across the South West each year. We are incredibly grateful for the support companies like Four Pillars Hotels who help us to make a very real difference to patients and their families.   In addition to the cake decorating, the teams at Tortworth Court and Cotswold Water Park have been busy fundraising throughout the year.  There have been cabaret nights, raffles, zumbathons, half marathons and General Managers trading places with housekeeping for the day!

To find out about how your company can help support Bristol’s hospitals please contact Lorna Clarke, Head of Corporate Partnerships on 0117 370 0842 or lorna.clarke@aboveandbeyond.org.uk

For further details on Four Pillars Hotels and their charity work visit www.four-pillars.co.uk/charity

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Monies were raised from various events held at the hotels including quiz nights, a family fun day, a nearly new clothes sales, cake sales and some of the male team members succumbing to a little bit of waxing! In addition to this Help for Heroes wristbands and lapel pins were sold from the reception desks in each of the hotels and at each hotel event Help for Heroes merchandise was being sold.

The cheque was handed over to David Smith who is a local co-ordinator for Help for Heroes and this was done at the Oxford Witney Four Pillars Hotel by some of the Charity Committee.

Following on from this success, Four Pillars Hotels are pleased to launch the Charities of the Year for 2012 which are Vale House in Oxford and the Bristol Royal Children’s Hospital. The charities that the group support are chosen by the staff in the hotels and the decision this year to support two local charities meant that in addition to raising funds for these very worthy causes, we are also able to offer additional practical help and support in many different ways.

We have various fund-raising activities planned throughout the year, details of which can be found at www.four-pillars.co.uk/charity 

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