Not All About The Beer: Our 2018 Charity Highlights
Over the course of last year, we worked with two fantastic charity partners, Headway East London and The Hackney Winter Night Shelter. From Community Day volunteer work, to Hackney Beer Hops and beer donations, read on for some of the highlights of our 2018 Charity Partnerships...
Two Hackney Beer Hops
Last year, we hosted two charity Hackney Beer Hops. Each charity pub crawl saw us and a group of ~50 folks visit some of the best beer spots in our East London ends. The first, a Tryanuary themed crawl around Hackney Wick, raised over £300 for the Hackney Winter Shelter. The second, hosted on a beautiful sunny day in June, raised over £900 for Headway East London!
It’s always such a super way of connecting with not only the lovely folks on each tour, but also our charity partners, local pubs and publicans, and general Hackney community. Thank you to each and every one who has joined us on our tours so far: your generosity has been fantastic to be part of. Cheers!
Winter Clothing Drive for The Hackney Winter Night Shelter
In December, we hosted a fundraiser and clothing drive for the Hackney Winter Night Shelter at The Pembury Tavern. We encouraged people to donate their unwanted winter clothing in exchange for a pint of Five Points beer. A coat or sweatshirt got could be exchanged for a pint, and smaller items like t-shirts could be exchanged for a half-pint. We were delighted to raise over £400 for the charity, and collected:
49 T Shirts
39 Jumpers
21 Pairs of socks
19 Hats
14 Jackets
14 Pairs of Trousers
11 Scarves
10 Shirts
8 Pairs of shoes
3 Pairs of gloves
3 Bags
& 1 Sleeping Bag
Community Day Gardening at Headway East London
2018 was also the first year of offering our ‘Community Day Leave’ to all of our staff. Some of the team used their Community Day to stretch their green fingers in the canal-side garden of Headway East London, weeding, sweeping, and tidying up the vegetable patch and tomato plants. It was a lovely chance to get to know more of the Headway East London members and staff, and do something rewarding in our local community.
Matteo’s 10km in aid of Headway East London!
Shout out to our Drayman, Matteo, for smashing his 10km run earlier this year, and raising over £600 for Headway East London. Rumour has it he’s signed-up for the Hackney Half, this year running in aid of Mind… Go Matteo!
For last year’s Hackney Half, we also donated beers for the Hackney Winter Night Shelter Runners’ Goody Bags, and the charity raised a whopping £22k through the event sponsorship.
Head in the Game with Headway East London
Our final event with Headway East London was our Head in the Game “games night” event at the beginning of January this year. A particular highlight from the evening was a DJ set from Keith, a Headway member and former Soul dancer and DJ before his injury, who brought in a fraction of his extensive record collection to the pub to play for us all.
Thank you, everyone, for your generous spirit over the past year. It’s been incredible to work with such so many great people from both charities, and all of you guys, too, who have supported our fundraising efforts.
We’re looking ahead to another successful year with two new Charity Partners: Mind in the City, Hackney & Walthamstow Forest, and Access all Areas. Keep an eye on our events section and social media platforms for upcoming events for a good cause!
