Some of Stockport’s finest voices joined together in a Carol Service to bring together the business community in celebration of Christmas and to raise funds for Mellor Country House.
The Carol Service, arranged for local businesses by Marketing Stockport, was held in the splendour of Stockport’s ‘cathedral’, St Mary’s-in-the-Marketplace where the Reverend Roger Scoones led the congregation through the story of the nativity; in his seasonal address he commented on how pleased he was to see the local business community coming together once again and recreating the spirit of family.
Richard Higginson welcomed the guests and readings followed from Helen White and Oliver Robinson, who kindly invited everyone back to the Robinson Brewery Visitor Centre for mulled wine and mince pies.
Over 70 people then gathered at Robinson’s, who this year are celebrating 175 years as a family business in Stockport, where as well as entering the Christmas spirit, over £750 was raised for Mellor Country House, a fabulous country house in Mellor where families who face challenges can have a few days respite in a peaceful and secure environment.
The marketing team at Robinsons had worked tirelessly to gather some fabulous prizes for the Gift Tree – including two Wiis, tickets to Manchester United, hampers, itunes vouchers, champagne, wine, cider, chocolates and of course Robinsons’ own beers – including Unicorn and ward winning ale Old Tom.
Sarah Rogers, who pulled together the charity raffle, had visited the home in Mellor with Helen White from Marketing Stockport and was moved by the importance of providing such a beautiful place of refuge for those who would otherwise have no escape from their daily challenges.
Nick Rose from MIdshire Business Systems won one of the Wiis and immediately donated it to Mellor Country House for the visiting children to enjoy. Nick himself is no stranger to fund-raising having earlier this year completed the F72 Challenge – a 72 hour football match that is now officially a world record breaker!!
The second Wii was auctioned off and added to his Christmas stocking by Ian Keeling from the Vernon Building Society who paid £160.
Helen & Richard were delighted that their first Christmas event was such a success:
“This has been an amazing evening for so many of us. It is great to see our members and guests coming together at this our first Carol Service for the Stockport business community; Roger Scoones is a lovely man and led a perfect service – and the singing was just fabulous” enthused Helen.
Richard commented:
When you arrange an event such as this, slightly different to the usual business networking event, it can be a litte nerve racking to say the least, But this evening has been a fantastic success for everyone! The guests both here in Robinson’s Visitor Centre and at St Mary’s have had a fabulous evening and typify the spirit of Stockport’s business fraternity; they have dug deep into their pockets and given generously to raise funds for a very worthy cause.
“We would like to thank everyone who has come along this evening and especially to Oliver Robinson, his family and the marketing team – Sarah ,Danniella and Lawrence – for their own generousity and their hard work.”
Find out more about Mellor Country House and Robinsons Visitor Centre
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