YORK-based charity Lollipop was presented with a donation of over £1000 from Make It York following fundraising by staff from their tourism team and Visit York members for the 2019 York Rotary Dragon Boat Challenge.

The Visit York Dragonboat team was made of up of 16 staff and Visit York members including Castle Howard, Fancy Hanks and City Cruises who fundraised for Lollipop as their chosen charity for the event and the Rotary Club of York’s 2019 charity St Leonard’s Hospice.

The team competed against over thirty other local teams – coming in 13 place.

Lollipop supports children and young people in York and North Yorkshire who have any degree of deafness from mild to profound with a range of free activities.

The charity was established by Andrea Gitsham in 2004, who after becoming deaf herself realised that there was a gap in services offered to deaf children, young people and their families. Lollipop has expanded its support over the years and now, as well as activities and workshops around York and North Yorkshire, they also offer a deaf friendly activity space in the Minster Building on Lowther Street.

Sue Frumin, Membership Engagement Manager at Make It York who led the Dragon boat team as drummer said: “We chose to support this fantastic local charity with our fundraising efforts because of the excellent work they do to help young people across the city. The Dragon Boat race was a hugely fun event – and whilst we didn’t win, the whole team had a great day and we were delighted to work with our members to help raise money for such a worthy cause.”

Heidi Davies, Service Manager at Lollipop said: ‘We are delighted with this support from Visit York and the generosity of those who sponsored the team. The money donated will make a huge difference to the children, young people and families we help provide support to. Thank you to everyone who has supported the event this year.”