A successful charity appeal saw Great Annual Savings Group (GAS) deliver more than 500 chocolate eggs to children at Hospitals across the North East after generous donations from staff.
GAS’ month-long appeal was the first initiative from its newly-formed Charity Committee, whose mission is to have a positive impact on the community and charities nearby.
The chocolate egg appeal reached out to GAS’ 115 head office staff members, who responded with a total collection of 530 eggs – almost five per head. BE Group, GAS’ Spectrum Business Park neighbours, also joined in to contribute to the giant chocolate wall of eggs that was built in the office.
The haul was split between children’s wards at James Cook Hospital, Sunderland Royal Hospital, University Hospital of North Durham and South Tyneside Hospital.
The children’s ward staff helped unload the huge pile of eggs at each location and distributed them around the wards.
Dawn McCabe, Nursery Nurse at James Cook Hospital, said: “It’s amazing what GAS has done to raise so many eggs. It’s brightened the day for the kids here.
“Thank you to everyone who has been involved.”
Rachel Patterson, Matron on the Children’s Ward at Sunderland Royal Hospital, said: “The generosity of local businesses if fantastic and really makes a difference to the children. We will have patients in over the Easter weekend and receiving an Easter egg may seem like a small gesture, but it really does put a smile on their faces.”
Bradley Groves, Chief Executive and Chairman of Great Annual Savings Group, said: “We set up our Charity Committee to create a tangible and measurable impact on North Eastern communities and they have made a great start with this collection.
“I’m pleased that the hospitals were so glad to receive the donation because we’re all proud of how emotionally invested our staff got in the appeal at GAS, along with the end result.”
Ricky Mingle, Chairman of Great Annual Savings Group’s Charity Committee, said: “We were very excited to go out and put a smile on the faces of the kids over the Easter period.
“Each hospital we approached were enthusiastic about our visits and the common feedback was that these sorts of donations are common at Christmas, but not so much at Easter. So we were happy to oblige.”