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Holidays for Heroes

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Holidays for Heroes

We have given 29 Holidays for Heros couples a night to remember at the White Swan from a closed list of 200 NHS workers that have been nominated via our website (www.white-swan.co.uk) for 200 overnight stays at the White Swan. 171 to go as soon as we can reopen.   We also support the local community with takeaways for donations to support this casue further.   Since the programme started we have been running free soup to the staff and volunteers at Pickering Surgery dishing out the jabs.

This is our way of saying thank you to our front line NHS and Emergency Service workers, so they have a chance to put their feet up and be cared for by our team.  We will provide the bedrooms and subsidise food and drinks but if you would like to help us that would be amazing.  Our target is to raise £30 for every stay – so £6000 in total.

Please sponsor an individual stay if you can (or a multiple number)  We will then allocate your donation to a specific person and ask them to sign a Thank-you card for you - and at their option perhaps a photo of them too.  You can then have a momento of your generosity to share as you like.

If we raise more than our target then we can give more.  A lot more.  Initially we weren't going to seek external funding but we have had so many enquiries from our brilliant customers and frankly we are happy for the help as we aren't exactly flush at the moment.

Please give what you can to help us achieve goals, and we will make sure the money is well spent providing a much-deserved thank you,  then you can give yourselves a clap too.


Background - 100 meals a week to York and Scarborough Hospitals

The White Swan Inn, Pickering was closed by Government on 20th March 2020. Not to be completely defeated by CV-19, we immediately set about looking at ways we could use our resources to help others.

The furloughed team volunteered initially to provide delicious, traditional and well received ‘lockdown Sunday lunches’ - some paid for and others gifted every week so which we also added 'Fish and Chip Friday'. 

At the very beginning of Lockdown we received an appeal from a customer whose sister is an NHS ICU/A&E Doctor at York.  Dr Ruth and team were just those kind of frontline heroes who were beginning to get a Thursday clap so we immediately decided we must help replace their soggy vending machine sandwiches and sustain them with real food during their 12 hour shifts in the ‘hot’ zone.  And so, it began - initially one and then when we finally found the marvellous Dianne Jack at Scarborough two NHS meals for every Lockdown meal we sold – all done by our amazing team on a voluntary basis.  Our mission to prepare and distribute at least 100 NHS meals a week has now passed the 1000 meal mark and we intend to carry on regardless.

We have also delivered afternoon tea to the staff at Whitby Road, our local care home for the elderly, cake and treats to Malton Hospital to celebrate Capt Toms 100th Birthday and various other bits and pieces.

What else? One of our biggest and most obvious resources is our bedrooms. We have been offering rooms completely free of charge throughout lockdown to independent NHS workers and a surgery Dr who needed somewhere to stay, for whatever reason, in order to remain front line ready.  This service has already been gratefully used and we will continue to offer it until we reopen.

All involved give their time for free and plan to continue this initiative for as long as it is needed. We all salute the NHS bravery and frankly we think this is the least we can do!
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Donations 

  • Paul Lavender
    • £100 
    • 4 yrs
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Organizer

Victor Buchanan
Organizer

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