Westpoint Exeter reveals winning charities

As Westpoint Exeter celebrates its 25th year it reveals the lucky winners of its free charity event giveaway at a birthday tea party held at the venue’s Wadsworth Pavilion.

The competition, which ran earlier this year, invited local and national charities to suggest an event they would like to host at the venue - one of the largest in the South West. Shortlisted from a number of hopeful entrants, Westpoint Exeter are delighted to announce that the three top charities selected for a spot on Westpoint Exeter’s events calendar are Families for Children, Dame Hannah Rogers Trust and Hounds First.

Families for Children, the only voluntary adoption agency based in Devon, Cornwall and Dorset finds new adoptive families to provide children from all over the UK with loving and stable homes. The charity will be inviting families, volunteers and patrons together for a Family Fun Day to celebrate the vital work of its staff and volunteers, offer ongoing support to adoptive families and to allow children to meet other adopted children.

The event is set to be the first gathering at which all its celebrity patrons are present; Michael Caines MBE, Caroline Quentin, David Lawrence-Jones, Mark Tyler and Judi Spiers. They will join the judging panel for a number of fun-filled activities including fancy dress, face painting, cupcake making, children’s colouring and family games.

Ally Colton, Fundraiser and Publicity Coordinator at Families for Children:

“We’re absolutely delighted to be here to celebrate the 25th anniversary of Westpoint. It’s going to be an amazing day to get all of our families together here, along with our trustees, everybody who work for Families For Children and our patrons.”

Dame Hannah Rogers Trust also snapped up a spot in December with their proposed fundraising event and volunteer recruitment drive. As a rapidly-growing charity that supports, enables and empowers children and young adults with disabilities, fundraising is essential to purchase vital equipment and maintain the high-quality services they provide.
Imogen Middleton, Community Fundraiser at Hannah’s, as the charity is widely known, said:

“We’re really excited to have won one of the charity days at Westpoint and we’re really grateful that we were given this opportunity. We can’t wait to welcome you all to our coffee morning and afternoon tea in December!”

Hounds First, the final organisation to make it onto the winning shortlist, rescues and rehomes stray and surrendered sighthounds, including salukis, greyhounds, lurchers and whippets. The charity will be hosting an awareness day for dog owners, ‘How to Train your Dog’. This flagship event will launch their education programme whilst raising the valuable funds which enable them to continue rescuing dogs in need.

Reflecting on the process of the giveaway, Westpoint Exeter CEO, Richard Maunder said:

“As part of our celebration we’ve offered our facilities for free to charities. We invited a whole range of charities to apply and after lots of deliberation, we finally managed to narrow it down to these three wonderful charities.

We’ve worked with some fantastic charitable organisations over the many years we’ve had here at Westpoint and this is our opportunity to give a little bit back. And here’s to another 25 years!”

All events will be taking place this Autumn, with Families for Children kicking off the fun with their Fancy Dress Day on 6th September. For further updates on the events please visit the Facebook page or follow us on Twitter @WestpointExeter. For the full events calendar at Westpoint Exeter, visit the website.