A tenpin bowling alley is striking out in aid of a children’s hospice.
Eagles Meadow. TenPin have announced their new charity of the year to be Hope House. Pictured: Staff, Eleni Morandi, Shane Jones and Cath Leask
Staff at Tenpin at the Eagles Meadow shopping centre in Wrexham have voted for Hope House as their chosen charity in 2016.
The organisation has two hospices, Hope House near Oswestry and Tŷ Gobaith in the Conwy Valley.
The charity supports hundreds of families from across North and Mid Wales, Cheshire and Shropshire, providing specialist nursing care and support to life-limited children, young people and young adults.
Cath Leask, the deputy manager of Tenpin says the team came up with the idea of supporting one main charity.
She said: “Rather than giving small amounts to lots of different charities we thought we could make a bigger difference if we did what fundraising we could for one main charity.
“We held a staff meeting and Hope House was the preferred choice for this year at least.
“We are now deciding how best we can raise funds throughout the year. We are certainly looking at a monthly fundraising event.
“And a sponsored staff bike ride is definitely one thing we will be doing. We are also looking at holding a Hope House Day and perhaps inviting children along to enjoy a bowling game.”
She added: “We just feel, as a team, we can make more of a difference if we put our collective efforts into raising funds for one main charity.
“We will still do what we can for other charities if asked, for instance we have a close relationship with Dynamic and have one of their collection boxes on the counter, but Hope House will be our main charity this year.”
Alison Marsh, who works as a fundraiser for Hope House Children’s Hospices, was delighted Tenpin staff decided to name the Oswestry and Conwy-based hospices as their charity of the year.
She said: “We are thrilled Tenpin staff chose to support us. We need to raise £6 million a year to run the two hospice sites and our outreach programme of home nursing.
“That’s a huge amount of money but we manage to raise it from lots of different fundraising initiatives all working together.
“Every little really does help and when companies and teams of workers, such as the staff of tenpin, help us we can hopefully raise what we need to run all our services.”
She added: “We will be supporting the staff at Tenpin and look forward to helping the team run a fundraising day.”
Eagles Meadow manager Kevin Critchley added: “Hope House and Tŷ Gobaith do a truly wonderful job and they deserve all the support that they get.
“Raising the £6 million they need every year is a big mountain to climb and I’m delighted that Tenpin are doing their bit to help.”
For more information about Hope House visit www.hopehouse.org.uk and for more information about Eagles Meadow including shops and opening times visit www.eagles-meadow.co.uk
