We want to thrash 2016’s fundraising record
As you may be aware, we proudly support the brilliant local charity Cherry Trees, a home from home providing specialist short breaks for young people with disabilities in Surrey. Last year saw the opening of their new Sensory Room, which we were invited down to visit in July 2016 (read about our visit here).
Across the Red Mist family of pubs, we actively raise funds to the Rainbow Trust Children’s Charity, Phyllis Tuckwell, Hampshire & Isle of Wight Air Ambulance, Challengers and Help for Heroes. We feel that as a pub and as part of the fabric of the local area, we have a responsibility to make a meaningful contribution to the community in which we serve!
Each year we commit to raising funds for these charities across our family of pubs and our sister pubs’ host monthly networking events at The Wheatsheaf, The Cock Inn and our youngest sibling; The Royal Exchange. All donations made go towards their chosen charity. In total we raised just under £2500 last year from these networking events alone!
In addition to these networking events, we donate 20p from every pint of Red Mist Ale enjoyed by our lovely customers and challenge ourselves to complete annual sports fundraising events. In the past, these have included the Red Mist Ramble; a 26-mile walk taking to the footpaths of the Surrey Hills, starting here at The Queens Head in East Clandon, all the way to The Wheatsheaf for a celebratory pint (and sleep). The 40 members of staff, suppliers and charity partners who participated, raised a whopping £7,000 for Phyllis Tuckwell and Disability Challengers.
A week after the Red Mist Ramble, our annual CherryFest charity festival was hosted at The Duke of Cambridge, Tilford. This was our 8th CherryFest festival, with plenty of family fun to be had. There was live music, face painting, a raffle, plenty of food and drink, a bouncy castle and most popularly, a creepy crawly corner with all sorts of exotic bugs and snakes to view! CherryFest is growing each year and we aim on smashing the total of £7,000 we raised in 2016!
We raised a grand total of just under £25,000 across the Red Mist family, a 28% increase on 2015 that couldn’t have been achieved without the generosity of you, our brilliant customers! We intend to surpass this figure and Mark Robson, our MD has laid down the gauntlet and set the Three Peak Challenge as this year’s fundraising event!
‘’We we’re blown away by people’s generosity. These results should act as a reminder that pubs are very much part of the fabric of our community. The donations we can help to raise means everything to the charities that we support. That is priceless and for that reason we will be raising our game again and hope to thrash this year’s record’’ – Mark Robson.