Top hotel to support our appeal
8:31am Saturday 10th May 2008
A LEADING hotel in York has chosen The Press's Guardian Angels Appeal as one of its charities of the year.
Staff at the Hilton Hotel are throwing their weight behind our bid to raise £300,000 to build a unit that will transform the way York Hospital cares for its sickest children.
At the last count, the appeal was £50,000 off that milestone but building work on a new high-dependency unit at the children's ward has started and is expected to finish in July.
Although the life-saving unit is expected to be up and running by the end of the summer, the final leg of our fundraising is vital to buy all the necessary equipment.
The Hilton Hotel team's charity efforts last year raised £5,000.
Adele Crofts, PA to the hotel manager, is organising this year's fundraising projects, which she said would benefit the Guardian Angels and another local cause, to be confirmed.
She explained each hotel in the company was set a challenge of raising money every year for the Hilton In The Community Foundation, which was set up to make a difference to young people.
"Each hotel has a target to raise money for local charities or causes in the community of that hotel."
Through targeted grant-giving, the foundation aims to support smaller charities that might otherwise be overlooked with a focus on young people, their health and education.
In 2006, the charity donated more than £1.3m to good causes.
A large proportion of its income is generated through fundraising by Hilton Hotel staff, their suppliers and guests.
Adele said the hotel, next to Clifford's Tower in the city centre, had been set a target of raising £4,500.
"But we always raise more than that. Last year it was £5,000."
Adele said: "We asked the staff what they wanted to support.
"One member's younger sister was in the Special Care Baby Unit at York Hospital, so he thought Guardian Angels would be a good idea and the housekeeping staff know people whose children have been in there as well."
She said various ideas had already been thrown into the mixing pot, including fancy dress days at the hotel, a poker night, drinks reception, car wash and car boot sales over the coming months.