Supporting Shooting Star Childrens Hospice

Shooting Star Children’s Hospices

Since 2011 Stirling Ackroyd had proudly supported Shooting Star Children’s Hospice, a leading children’s hospice charity supporting over 700 children, throughout Surrey and West London.

In 2019 Shooting Star Chase became Shooting Star Children’s Hopsices, to better promote the work they do to the communities they serve, with Christopher’s in Guildford and Shooting Star House in Hampton. Shooting Star cares for babies, children and young people with life-limiting conditions, and their families from diagnosis to end of life and throughout bereavement.

Stirling Ackroyd is officially Shooting Star Children’s Hospice longest standing corporate partner, and over the past two decades has raised and donated over £300,000 by taking part in events such as charity walks, fire walks, sky dives, cycle rides, the 3 Peaks Challenge and not forgetting the numerous cake bakes and smaller fundraisers that take place regularly at our main group support office in Byfleet and around our branch network.

Last year we raised over £30,000 taking part in a range of activities and the team are looking forward to doing it all over again this year.

2022

Snowdon Sunrise Walk
Starting at 3:30am on the 1^st April, 27 Colleagues set out to climb Snowdon in support of Shooting Start Childrens Hospice. Switching from the Pyg trail to the Llanberis Path due to heavy snowfall, the group finally arrived at the top of Snowdon shortly after 7am to feelings of achievement, exhilaration and relief!

The group raised an astonishing £19,250 for the charity, far in excess of their initial £15,000 target.

145 Mile Bike Ride
On the 24^th June at 7:30am, 11 colleagues started their 145 mile bike round around 35 of the Stirling Ackroyd Branches, starting at our head office in Byfleet. The first branch they visited was Addlestone and their last branch, at 10:30pm was Croydon. With 32 miles back to head office and a serious hard push on motivation, they made it back to the head office in Byfleet just before 12:30pm.

The group raised £7,500 from family, friends, colleagues, and other corporate partners meaning our fundraising total was at £28,000 after the two charity events.

Shooting Star Apprentice Challenge
On Monday 5^th December, 15 of our colleagues took park in the Shooting Star Children’s Hospice Apprentice Challenge (Apprentice Shop Challenge – Shooting Star Children’s Hospices) by taking part in a Bake Sale in both Guildford and Hampton Hill. Our Guildford team raise £1,7315.25 and our Hampton team raised £1,280.30, totaling an incredible £2.993.55.

It costs £10 million a year to maintain their current level of care, and with only a small percentage of income coming from central government and statutory funding, they rely on their supporters’ generosity to keep their vital service running. 2022 saw us raise over £30,000 and we hope to achieve this and more in 2023 by taking part in the below activities:

• 3rd to 6th April – Easter Baking Challenge
• Friday 26th May – Stirling Ackroyd Marathon
• Saturday 22nd July – North Downs Walk with Shooting Star Children Hospice
• Sunday 24th September – Stirling Ackroyd take on Tough Mudder
• Monday 4th December – Charity Shop Take Over

Not only are we all for taking part in activities and events, this year we have been given the chance to fund an apprentice at Shooting Star Children’s Hospice.

“Our colleagues at Stirling Ackroyd are always keen to support the inspirational and invaluable work of Shooting Star Children’s Hospices. We’ve raised hundreds of thousands of pounds as a corporate partner for many years and we’re always on the lookout for new ways to support the charity.
Charities are not immune to the current recruitment and retention challenges faced by many employers, and we’re delighted to offer our support by sponsoring the apprenticeship for an individual, to finance the associated training costs and ensure the role is viable for the charity.”
Dominic Easterby, Group HR Director

“Thank you to Stirling Ackroyd for funding our new apprentice through the Apprenticeship Levy scheme.  This has given us the opportunity to take on a young apprentice into a developmental role.  Our aim is to provide a solid understanding of business administration within our organisation whilst supporting our apprentice to gain her level 3 qualification.  We are very grateful to be able to trial this recruitment route.”
Judith Rudman, Care Admin Team Leader at Shooting Start Childrens Hospice 

For more information and to stay up to date with our events this year, make sure to follow us on Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn!