Last Monday was our Easter Charity Challenge, which has been in the works for a long time, and we are pleased to report that the day was a great success. Three local Lancashire charities were successful in finding the egg and cracking the safe to win a total of £5000, whilst another five great causes received donations of £100 each for taking part.
The aim of the game was simple; find the three winning eggs. Hidden carefully around Avenham Park were eight eggs each with an individual code located inside. Each charity drew a number at random, which corresponded to a location in the park where one of the eggs was hidden. One by one each charity raced to their allocated location to try and find the hidden egg. Once found, they returned to try their luck with one of the three safes by inputting the code inside their egg into each one of the locked safes.
The Katy Holmes Trust were the lucky winners of the jackpot prize taking home a grand total of £3000, which will go towards funding research into paediatric brain tumours in the UK. Speaking to The Safe Shop after the event Paula Holmes commented saying, ‘we are absolutely delighted to have cracked the safe and won the £3000! This money will go towards funding paediatric brain tumour research which is woefully under-funded despite the fact that brain tumours are the biggest cancer killer of children and adults under 40 in the UK’. Paula continued saying that, ‘every penny raised is so very precious and gets us a little closer to finding the cure. We’re so grateful to The Safe Shop for giving us such a great opportunity’.
Local charities Heartbeat and The Foxton Centre were also lucky enough to walk away with £1000 each for their respective charities. Heartbeat work to provide nearly 600 heart attack victims a week with cardiac rehabilitation whilst The Foxton Centre work closely with many people across Preston including rough sleepers, street sex workers and disadvantaged young people.
A spokesperson from The Foxton Centre said that the money would go towards repairs to their premises caused by a recent fire. They said, ‘since our recent fire at The Centre, every penny counts! The money we won will help us be able to continue offering services throughout the repair period from alternative locations’. These services included fantastic activities for young people such as trampolining as well as continuing to offer their Community Café at the Unity Centre. They went on to say that they have ‘so many unexpected expenses as a result of the fire and so our £1000 win has come at a great time’.
Other runners up Heartbeat also commented on the event saying that everybody involved, ‘thoroughly enjoyed the event and we were all over the moon by being one of the lucky winners of £1,000’. They said that the money would go towards the ‘on-going service Heartbeat provides to people who suffer from heart problems’.
All three charities were presented their winning cheques by Veronica Afrin, the Mayor of Preston, who said, ‘we really thank The Safe Shop for this. It is so important to these charities. It’s a lot of money for people to raise £5000’.
Whilst not everybody was lucky enough to crack one of the winning safes each of the runners up received a £100 donation towards their cause. We have put together a short video, which you can view below, giving bit more insight into those charities that took part, as well as highlighting the day’s events. All of the charities who were involved are doing incredible work so be sure to go to their websites to learn more about each one.
Thank you everybody who made the day a success, those who took part, and a big congratulations to those charities that #crackedthesafe @TheSafeShop
