St Austell Brewery’s Charitable Trust has donated £10,000 to Children’s Hospice South West following the recent official opening of Bath Ales’ new brewery.
Since acquiring Bath Ales in 2016, the Cornwall-based brewery has spread its Charitable Trust’s operations into area to ensure as many people as possible benefit from donations.
The state-of-the-art Hare Brewery, between Bath and Bristol in Warmley, was built on the site of Bath Ales’ original brewery.
The result of a multi-million pound investment, it has doubled the capacity of the previous brewery to close to 14.5m pints a year and opened up the possibility of a wider range of beers.
More than 500 guests attended the opening celebrations, where Charitable Trust director Piers Thompson present a cheque for £10,000 to the hospice.
He said: “We wanted to make a charitable donation to mark the opening and we wanted to make sure that whoever we gave the money to would be able to use it to help people across the area that we operate in through St Austell and Bath Ales.
“The children’s Hospice was the obvious choice as it provides such an amazing service across the entire South West giving specialist care for young children and families who need it most.”
Children’s Hospice South West (CHSW) has three hospices across the region – Little Harbour in Cornwall, Little Bridge House in Devon and Charlton Farm, near Bristol.
CHSW helps to support children and their families who are living with life-limiting or life-threatening conditions by providing specialist palliative care, family respite stays, a sibling service for brothers and sisters, emergency support, end-of-life care and a bereavement service for as long as is needed.
CHSW corporate partnerships fundraiser Kate Fisher said: “We are absolutely delighted to receive such a wonderful donation from the St Austell Brewery Charitable Trust. CHSW’s services are free to families who need us because we believe that nothing should get in the way of sick children receiving the very best care. This £10,000 donation will go a long way in helping us enrich the lives of these children and their families.”
Since its launch in 2003, the St Austell Brewery Charitable Trust has raised more than £750,000 for local individuals and organisations in need, with more than £120,000 of that coming from the brewery’s annual fundraising Celtic Beer Festival in November.
Donations are made to individuals, organisations and charities small and large within the company’s operating areas through a request process and, when it acquired Bath Ales in 2016, Bath Ales’ Hare Foundation was incorporated into the Trust to ensure that organisations and individuals in need in the Bath and Bristol areas continued to receive donations.
Piers Thompson added: “While we do make donations to large and vital charities such as CSHW, the RNLI and the Air Ambulance, we also welcome requests from all of those in need from all walks of life for things like disability bikes, technology for reading and learning enhancement and things that will simply improve the quality of someone’s life.”
A decision on this year’s charity partner for the anniversary event has yet to be taken.
Pictured celebrating the Charitable Trust donation to CHSW are, from left: St Austell Brewery CEO James Staughton, CHSW media officer Kate Green, CHSW corporate partnerships fundraiser Kate Fisher, St Austell Brewery charitable trust director Piers Thompson, trust administrator Micci Cooper and Bath Ales operations chief Mick Stawniczy
