Hall & Woodhouse raises over a quarter of a million pounds for Air Ambulance charities

Hall & Woodhouse (H&W), the leading independent family-owned Dorset brewer, has raised £268,365 in aid of eight local air ambulance charities in the past two years.

At the beginning of 2018, H&W’s team members voted to make eight air ambulance charities their official charity partner until 2020 and we were lucky enough to be chosen as one of them, alongside some of our neighbouring air ambulances who will all be equal beneficiaries of the amount raised.

Over the past two years, 53 pubs in H&W’s managed house estate across the south, came together to raise as much money as possible through a variety of fundraising initiatives such as quiz nights, sponsored events, family fund days and challenge events.

H&W holds its annual Dorset Beer Festival in June, which sees members of the community enjoy beer, live music and locally produced food at the Blandford Brewery. Over the course of the two-year partnership this particular event raised £23,000.

In recognition of National Air Ambulance week, which takes place in September every year, more than 30 team members from 11 different H&W pubs bravely undertook an abseil decent of the Spinnaker Tower. Participants in the nerve-racking 170 metre descent, included teams from The Lulworth Cove Inn, The Crown Hotel in Blandford and The Old Granary in Wareham. All participating in the challenge helped to raise over £5,000 in the process.

Additionally, over £25,500 was raised by 38 houses featuring a ‘charity dish’ on their pub menu over a 12-month period. 25p from the sale of each dish went towards the charity partnership when guests purchased Ham, Egg and Chips.

Lucinda Gray, Company Charity Champion of H&W, said:

“We are absolutely thrilled to have raised such a tremendous amount for eight local air ambulance charities. We set ourselves the ambitious target of raising £250,000 over the two years, but with dedication, kindness and teamwork I am incredibly proud and humbled that our team have smashed this.

“Our houses and the team at the Brewery in Blandford have worked tremendously hard to stay on track of this target and we are grateful for their support. They have enabled us to give back to the local communities in which the air ambulance charities serve. Every penny we raise will allow them to continue saving lives, further enhance their operations, or purchase new items of specialist equipment which could help keep someone alive until they reach hospital.”

Holly Adlem, Corporate Partnerships Coordinator for GWAAC said:

“This has been such a fantastic partnership to be involved with alongside our neighbouring air ambulances. It’s been a really special opportunity to collaborate with each other, but to also work alongside our local community and the Hall and Woodhouse teams within our region. They have embraced the challenge whole-heartedly and we are extremely grateful for all of their support and success in raising this fantastic amount for air ambulances across the South.”

GWAAC receives no day to day funding from the local government to provide it’s critical care and air ambulance services to the local communities across Bristol, Bath and North East Somerset, North Somerset, Gloucestershire and South Gloucestershire. Our Critical Care Team attends over 5 incidents a day on average, with each mission costing around £2,000, meaning the charity needs to raise over £4 million a year to remain operational.

“We couldn’t do what we do without the support of partnerships like this one. We would like to say a huge thank you to everyone at Hall and Woodhouse for supporting us and our air ambulance colleagues to be able to continue saving local lives,” continued Holly.

Hall & Woodhouse is a local independent family company that brews award-winning Badger ales and runs a collection of around 180 beautiful pubs and inns across the south of England. The business is dedicated to supporting the Dorset community and its causes, having invested more than £30 million into the county over the past five years, on top of their regular and extensive charity donations.

If your business would like to get involved in a corporate partnership in aid of your local air ambulance, then please get in touch with our Corporate Partnerships Coordinator, Holly, at holly.adlem@gwaac.com.