A Successful Debut for Great Big Beverley Charity Racenight

Last month, Beverley racecourse hosted The Great Big Charity Racenight in order to raise money for local charities. Five charities in the Hull and Beverley area came together for the event with Beverley Racecourse to raise over £3,500 for their charities, by combining the fun of the races with an evening of fundraising.

Cash for Kids, Daisy Appeal, Dove House Hospice, Hull Homeless Community Project and R-Evolution worked together to put their combined effort behind carnival stalls, ticket sales and a big charity raffle held on the night of racing.

R-evolution is a bicycle refurbishment project, which provides training and work opportunities to disadvantaged people in an effort to increase job-related skills. John Marshall, CEO said:

“R-evolution was extremely pleased to be chosen as one of the local charities to be supported on Beverley Race night in June 2019.  The money raised will go towards supporting young people across the East Riding of Yorkshire with the repairing of their bikes, without such support many would be without bikes.”

The charity raffle included homemade gifts, gym passes, afternoon teas, evening dinners, concert tickets and tickets for the Van Gogh Exhibition in London.  The charities pulled together their time and resources to plan and organise and promote the event. There was a great response from the  volunteers who came to the race night, just to help out these wonderful causes.

All of the proceeds from 500 premier tickets – donated by the racecourse – went to the charity directly, in exchange for a wonderful evening of racing in Beverley’s Premier Enclosure.

On the evening itself, the charities brought along various games and activities for racegoers to play in exchange for a donation of £1. A charity hub was created at the bottom of the Parade Ring in the heart of the racing action. Activities included Hook a Duck, Table Golf, Pick Up Sticks, Splat the Rat, Wheel of Fortune and Tin Can Stack with small prizes to be awarded to those who won. Again, all the money raised in the games went to the charities.

The winners of the raffle were announced during the evening via the racing big screen and on social media before the final race of the night. A total of £2,436.33 was raised on the raffle alone. The charities were also given a race name each on the night with the chance to present a trophy to the winning horse’s owners. Nurses, volunteers and charity representatives were invited to join the winners in the Parade Ring to present the prestigious prizes to the winning owners of their named race.

Beverley’s first ever charity race night helped to raise over £3,500 for five wonderful causes and promoted the charities to racegoers in a fun and thrilling evening of fantastic racing.

Claire Levy from the Daisy Appeal charity, said: “The Daisy Appeal was delighted to have been chosen as one of the five charities. The money raised will help us to complete the radiochemisty and cyclotron unit, allowing us to scan patients for certain heart and neurological conditions as well as cancer. This will give us the opportunity to save many lives in East Yorkshire and North East Lincolnshire.”

Andrew Smith from Hull Homeless Community Project, added: “Hull Homeless has thoroughly enjoyed being part of the Big Beverley charity race night 2019. As a small local charity it is always nice to form new friendships and partner with much larger charities. This helps us spread our message further and raise vital funds to help us continue to support all those in crisis and affected by Homelessness. We commend the team at Beverley racecourse for their hard work and generosity in hosting and organizing this wonderful event.”