Charities benefit from Palletforce generosity
Generous Palletforce members and staff dug deep to make this year’s inaugural Members' General Meeting a triumph for two UK charities.
An amazing ÂŁ20,000 was raised during a gala dinner that included a raffle and auction, compered by comedian Andrew Ryan.
Among the items up for grabs were seats at this year’s Capital One Cup Final at Wembley, signed photographs of David Bowie, Lewis Hamilton and David Beckham, and VIP tickets to see the Brit Awards, Adele, Andrea Bocelli and Lionel Richie at the O2 Arena in London.
The proceeds from the evening will be split between Midlands Air Ambulance and The Brain Tumour Charity, organisations that Palletforce has supported for the last six years.
Jen Boilestad, community fundraiser for The Brain Tumour Charity, said the money raised will be put towards an early diagnosis campaign, a vital new research project aimed at identifying the disease in adults.
“Palletforce has raised over £33,000 for our charity since 2012, which is a phenomenal amount and indicative of the exceptional generosity of its members,” she said.
Last year the Midlands Air Ambulance was called out over 2,000 times, and its three helicopters attend an average of three incidents every day.
“Every year we have to raise over £7 million to keep our fleet of three helicopters operational,” said corporate partnerships manager Sofia Voutianitis. “This would simply not be possible without the assistance of long-term donors like Palletforce.”
Over 200 delegates representing Palletforce members from across the UK attended the Members’ General Meeting.
Held at the Hilton St George’s Park in Burton upon Trent, the day-long event was the first since the Palletforce network was acquired by global private equity firm EmergeVest in 2015.
Palletforce chief executive officer Michael Conroy said: “Palletforce remains committed to supporting these charities and to have raised £20,000 was the icing on the cake of what was a hugely successful event. The generosity of our staff and members has done us proud.”