The JEllie Foundation unveils a charitable take on the
traditional advent calendar today (December 1 2022). Between now and Christmas
Eve, the charity will donate £1,000 a day to north-east children’s charities
and projects. The Christmas Eve donation will be £5,000.
The JEllie Foundation raises money for local charities through
events such as the Signature Food Festival at The Chester Hotel. The JEllie
Foundation trustees are hotel owners Gillian and Graham Wood.
Each day in December, a window on The Chester Hotel advent
calendar will be opened to reveal a traditional advent calendar image,
including toy trains, angels, nutcrackers, gingerbread men and Christmas
stockings. A video of staff from the Chester Hotel will then ‘reveal’ the day’s
charity recipient using that advent calendar prop.
The daily charity will be revealed at mid-day each day in a
video on Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn.
Graham Wood says, “Christmas should be all about children and
giving. Our family established The JEllie Foundation in order to give to local
children’s and young people’s charities, which we do throughout the year. This
year, as The Chester Hotel completes its fifth year of Signature Food Festival
events, we thought it would be fun to involve the whole team in distributing
the money raised at the events which they work so hard to deliver.
“We have drawn up a list of Aberdeen City and Shire charities
which focus on children, or which have specific projects for young people, and
we hope everyone will enjoy our daily ‘reveal’ on social media.”
The Chester Hotel events raised more than £800,000 between 2017
and 2021, with the final total from the Signature Food Festival 2022 expected
soon - making a seven figure total.
In previous years donations to local charities via The JEllie
Foundation have included £100k to Friends of the Aberdeen Neo Natal Unit to
fund giraffe incubators and £60k to The Archie Foundation for specialist pain
training for neo natal nurses. The foundation has also donated to SensationALL
which works with neurodiverse children and Autism Understanding Scotland which
supports autistic people and children, regardless of age gender and level of need.
Gillian Wood says, “The Chester Hotel team, from each
department, has had fun dreaming up and filming the 24 mini stunt ‘reveals’
with a traditional advent calendar theme. Our whole team is committed to giving
back to our local community and this is a fun, festive way to do it.”
More about the JEllie Foundation can be found at www.jelliefoundation.com. Information about the
Signature Food Festival can be found at www.signaturefoodfestival.co.uk and on The
Chester Hotel website www.chester-hotel.com.