It was always going to be hard to beat the Lighthouse Construction Industry Charity’s 60th Anniversary Christmas Lunch but this year’s event, held at the Park Plaza Hotel in London, raised a magnificent £227,000 for construction families in crisis, a record amount for the event!
To get the celebrations underway, there was ice cold Guinness in the drinks reception and soon afterwards, guests were being welcomed into the grand dining room by London Irish Voices singing seasonal renditions.
Doug Oakervee CBE was bestowed with a Lifetime Achievement Award by Cormac MacCrann, Chair of the Board of Trustees and awarded a bespoke diamond embossed gold Lighthouse pin. His outstanding contribution to the construction industry over the years and his ongoing support of the charity are unsurpassed. BBC commentator and former Scotland international Ian Robertson was Master of Ceremonies for the day and kept the audience entertained with insightful rugby stories. A gourmet three course meal was enjoyed by everyone and the fundraising kicked off with a heads and tails competition, a golden ticket prize worth £1,000 and a raffle. Both the winner of the £1,000 golden ticket and one of the raffle prizes were very generous and immediately donated their prize money back to the charity!
The afternoon also saw HQR London (High Quality Residential) awarded with the ‘Peter Capel’ Cup to recognise their substantial fundraising contribution this year. The “Peter Capel” Cup has been awarded each year to acknowledge outstanding contribution to the charity. HQR have raised over £80,000 in the past two years by holding an annual Summer Ball.
HQR Charitable Foundation Trustee, Andrew Crispin said; “It was a complete shock to Darren Size that we were even nominated for the Peter Capel Cup, so you can imagine how amazed we were when our name was read out as this year’s winner. We are delighted to support The Lighthouse Club and the good work that the charity does. We are also very pleased to confirm that The Lighthouse Club will once again be one of our two principal charities for 2018. Keep up the good work guys!”
The star of the live auction was a JCB 19C-1 Conventional Tailswing Mini Excavator which was very kindly donated by Lord Bamford. Bidding was very competitive but it was John Martin Hoyes, Managing Director of JMH Environmental and Construction, that scooped the coveted excavator with a bid of £16,500.
Guests were then treated to some top class entertainment with aspecial, ‘Live at the Lighthouse Club’ feature. As well as being the event’s fantastic auctioneer, Russ Williams was the anchorman for top comedians Henry Paker, The Chase’s Paul Sinha and Welsh tenor, Wynn Evans, all of whom had the guests cheering for more.
Bill Hill, CEO of the Lighthouse Construction Industry Charity said: “We are continually astounded by the generosity of our supporters and we are truly grateful to everyone that attended the lunch and dug so deep. A special thank you goes out to all the volunteers that help on the day itself and to all our sponsors who make these events possible, we couldn’t do it without you. This ongoing support means that we can continue to help construction families in crisis and make a real difference to people who may have nowhere else to turn.”
The festivities continued well into the evening with guests making the most of the networking opportunities and continuing to get into the Christmas spirit. We hope everyone had a fantastic time and we look forward to seeing you all next year.
Next year’s event is set for the same location on Friday 7th December. This event always sells out fast so click here to reserve your place
