Sidmouth store raises �2,620 for Children’s Hospice SW

Fields of Sidmouth staff raise bumper sum to aid children’s charity

FIFTY staff from Fields of Sidmouth cheered after hearing their fund raising efforts during 2011 had raised �2,620 for Children’s Hospice South West.

They gathered in the store’s coffee shop to present corporate fund raiser David Butt and volunteer Steve Warner from CHSW with the bumper cheque, after adopting it as their charity of the year.

“We have been working with Fields all year and every time we come to the shop we get a cheery wave, they have been wonderful to work with, they came up with different (fund raising) ideas every month, ” said David.

He said the store’s donation would go into general funds but would probably help pay for the play area at the sensory garden at Little Bridge House HQ in Barnstaple, where, he said, there was “a lot more laughter and fun than tears”.

The charity, which now has three homes for life-limited children in the West Country, needs �8 million a year to maintain them and has 400 families on its books.

“We get 10 percent statutory funding and the rest is raised through trusts, grants and legacies and community fund raising like this. I’m amazed how generous people in the South West are.”

Fields’ staff held various events to raise money for CHSW, including guessing the weight of a cake made by Fields’chef, Jenny Callaghan, who, with Barbara Hodge, the store’s charity fundraising co-ordinator, presented the cheque.

The staff voted to support Sidmouth Lifeboat, the town’s independent lifeboat, in 2012.