We arrange over 17,000 cottage holidays a year in the West Country and we can’t thank our holidaymakers enough for their generous donations. By combining them with the proceeds of a hugely successful charity cricket match we held on a sunny Sunday in June against a team from Michael Caines’ Michelin-starred restaurant, Gidleigh Park, and a parachute jump by four brave members of the Helpful Holidays team, we’re delighted to have raised so much money for a charity for which we have great admiration.
Farms for City Children was founded by children’s author Michael Morpurgo and his wife Claire in 1976 with their first farm, Nethercott House in Iddesleigh, deep in the heart of Devon. They now have two more farms, one in Pembrokeshire and the other in Gloucestershire, and the charity aims to expand the horizons of children from towns and cities all over the country by offering them a week living in the countryside on one of the farms. For more details, read our blog post from earlier this year.
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| Our Helen with farmer Barry Searle and children at Nethercott Farm |
Our PR Manager, Helen Hayes, went along to Nethercott House to present a cheque to the charity and had an opportunity to meet the schoolchildren from Sunnyhill Primary School in Streatham. She said, “It’s always a delight to come to Nethercott and to see first-hand the great work the charity does for all the hundreds of children who pass through their doors every year. It’s been a great year for our fundraising efforts and we’d like to thank everyone who has helped us reach this outstanding total.”
Each year we support one of three main charities which are close to our hearts and invite our holidaymakers to make a small contribution, if they wish, when making their bookings. Our charity for 2013 is Devon Air Ambulance Trust. Visit our Facebook page to help us kick off our fundraising for 2013 - we're donating £1 for each new 'like' or 'share' between 10am on 19th December and 5.30pm on 21st December 2012.
