Every year, we choose a local charity that is in need of some extra support to benefit from our tremendous fundraising efforts. As you may already know, last year we selected Keswick School as our charity of the year and have been raising money for them ever since.
Over the past couple of years, we heard about the incredible strain the school had felt following years of successive funding cuts. As a prestigious academy who strives only to better the experiences of their future students, the school was finding it difficult to gather the budget required to improve some of the school’s facilities.
Head teacher, Mr. Jackson, told us how continuously improving their pupil’s education through enhanced facilities is at the heart of their ethos. However, unfortunately they were struggling to find the budget to upgrade the overlooked food technology department.
After hearing about this and researching further, we also discovered that a whopping 97% of UK school students had disregarded a future career within the hospitality industry.
Lake District Hotels to the rescue!
As a corporation that specialises in providing excellent hospitality services across our 6 hotels, we felt like this was the perfect opportunity for us to help and our charity of the year was found!
Our company director, Kit Graves, had the great idea of conducting a complete re-haul the out of date food technology kitchens and refitting them with modern units that were in the style of the ‘Great British Bake Off’ kitchens.
“By introducing this new technology kitchen at Keswick School with modern facilities, it is our hope that more students will show an interest in cooking, learn about healthy diets, and take up careers within our industry”
All systems are go…
We’re proud to announce that all our fundraising has now come to an end, having successfully raised more than enough to complete the ambitious project. The development is currently well underway and is starting to look very exciting indeed.
In total, we have raised a colossal £30,000 for the project. This is not only a huge success for the school, but has set a new record for our fundraising efforts! This was done through various methods including:
- Fundraising
- Selling raffle tickets to win prizes
- Our sandwich competition among students
- Charity gala dinners
- Quiz nights
- A dragon boat race
- Ticket sales to events hosted by us (Royal Ascot, Wild West Night, etc.)
We must also thank certain individuals as well as larger companies/organisations for your kind generosity in donating lump sums and/or raffle prizes. We couldn’t have achieved this tremendous amount without your help!
The finished project.
As the project is coming to life, we are very excited about revealing the finished piece to you! The official opening of the brand-new kitchens will occur on Friday 20th September.
There in attendance to watch as the ribbon is cut and the stylish new kitchens are revealed will be: the school’s governors, directors and trustees, local community groups, the Mayor of Keswick and Allerdale, plus all sponsors and contractors that have physically helped turn our vision into a reality.
Help us fundraise for our next charity of the year!
As we’re always keen to support local charities, fundraising has already begun for our next charity of the year, Keswick Scouts!
Like we did for Keswick School, we will be hosting lots of excellent events to help us fundraise for them.
Some of these exciting events have already been scheduled in. Make sure you check our events page to see how you can help support this great cause while having a great time!
With special thanks to:
- Underscar Manor
- Thomas Armstrong Group
- Keswick Rotary Club
- Jennings Brewery
- Hyde Harrington Chartered Surveyors
- Caterite Food & Wineservice Ltd
- Pioneer Foodservice
- Sealy
- Aljacks DES Ltd
- Unwin Jones
- Ribble Farm Fare
- Heatons Office Solutions
- Howdens Joinery
