A guest house in Dorchester has announced its plans to fundraise for charity this summer. Aquila Heights Guest House, in Maiden Castle Road, will be raising money for four charities this year, each of which has some connection to the business.
During the four peak season months, the B&B has nominated a charity of the month. Every night of each month, Aquila Heights will donate £1 to the selected charity for every room occupied by guests.
Each of the chosen charities has some sort of connection to Aquila Heights. Joint owner, Wendy Caws, explains: “Both of us lost a parent to dementia, so the Alzheimer’s Society will always be important to us. We’re raising funds for them during May half term week and throughout June”.
“We have guests regularly staying with us visiting family and friends being cared for in Dorset County Hospital or at the Weldmar hospice. We always hear amazing feedback of the care provided in both these places, so we are pleased to be able to support them throughout August and September respectively.”
“For our final charity, we have chosen the Dorset & Somerset Air Ambulance, as we appreciate its importance in getting aid to people quickly in such a rural area, and the air ambulance is a common sight in the skies over Aquila Heights en-route to the County Hospital. We are pleased to be supporting their work throughout July.”
Each month, the guest house will be themed to recognise the charity of the month with posters on walls and leaflets in the guest bedrooms. Guests will be encouraged to contribute themselves with additional donations. Depending on the charity, there will be a selection of wristbands, pin badges and other accessories available to recognise guests’ contributions.
The other partner in the business, Derek Caws, explains: “This is such an easy, but effective, way to raise much-needed funds for charity that we are surprised that it is not more popular. We hope that by doing this ourselves, and letting everyone know about it, that we will inspire other B&Bs and hotels to do something similar. There are literally hundreds of places like us across Dorset and, even if only a few of us ran schemes like this, we could make a huge difference, especially for our local charities. We are mostly very small businesses, but together we can make a significant contribution to our community.”
