£100,000 raised throughout lockdown

Team members working for Premier Inn and Restaurants across the country continue their fundraising efforts for Great Ormond Street Hospital Children’s Charity (GOSH) throughout the lockdown

Team members working for Premier Inn and Restaurants across the country continue their fundraising efforts for Great Ormond Street Hospital Children’s Charity (GOSH) throughout the lockdown


To mark International Day of Charity, we have raised a staggering £100,000 for charity during lockdown, thanks to the ingenuity and commitment of our Premier Inn and Restaurants teams across the UK.

Incredibly, despite its hotels and restaurants being shut through lockdown - barring a select few to support keyworkers – hotel and restaurant teams up and down the country continued to raise funds for charity partner Great Ormand Street Hospital.

The money raised is part of Whitbread’s longstanding relationship with GOSH Charity, and part of its Force For Good commitment to give back to the communities in which it serves.

Undeterred by the closures, team members raised money at home or during caretaking duties at shut sites, often cleverly using the activity as a means to keep in touch.
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Whilst traditional activities such as marathons, bike rides or sky dives were not able to take place in their usual forms, teams came up with many ingenious new ideas and alternative takes on these traditional fundraising activities to keep morale high.

One particularly ingenious idea came from Louise Casey, a team member in Warrington. She took to the hotel corridors to raise an incredible £1000 by running an indoor marathon – attracting national media attention in the process.

Others putting their best foot forward included Gaz Culpan in Scarborough, who ran 5k every day in June raising £700, while the team in Milton Keynes raised almost £3000 through a series of challenges including physical feats such as running up and down stairs, 5k runs and dance-athons.

Not only did the activities amount to an incredible £100,000 for GOSH Charity, they also had an added business benefit, with many using the fundraising activity as an opportunity to maintain contact with their fellow colleagues through zoom or social media.

Simon Ewins, Premier Inn Managing Director said:
“I am blown away and humbled in equal measure that our teams have raised an incredible £100,000 for GOSH Charity during lockdown. Fundraising is a bit like a good team – each individual achievement and act of generosity all adding up to something truly phenomenal. That our people were able to come up with new and adapted ways to raise money during lockdown is not only testament to the great work GOSH do and how close the cause is to our hearts but the calibre of our team members”.

Louise Parkes, Chief Executive of GOSH Charity said:
“We are so grateful that team members from Premier Inn and Restaurants have continued to support GOSH Charity throughout lockdown and I am truly blown away by the incredible amount raised during a challenging few months. Hearing stories of team members’ creativity has been incredibly inspiring, and this fantastic sum will help us to support seriously ill children from across the UK who come to GOSH for life-changing treatment.”

 

Premier Inn, the UK’s top-rated hotel chain*, has proudly been supporting Great Ormond Street Hospital Children’s Charity since 2012, when it pledged to raise £7.5 million towards a brand new medical facility at the hospital. The Premier Inn Clinical Building, named in honour of the partnership, officially opened in January 2018, and provides state of the art facilities including new  in-patient wards, operating theatres and a day case unit, to match the hospital’s  world-class care. Most recently, Premier Inn pledged to raise a further £10 million to help fund a new Sight and Sound Centre, a specialist outpatient centre tailored to the needs of children with sight and hearing loss, which is due to open in 2021.
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