A prestigious Fantasy Four Shoot raffle, which offered a top prize of a day’s shooting for eight guns on four of the most outstanding drives in Kent, raised an impressive £50,000 for nine local charities as well as leading wildlife research charity, the Game & Wildlife Conservation Trust (GWCT).
Following the day’s shoot, which was attended by leading countryside magazine The Field and Phil Spencer, the renowned TV property expert, a cheque was presented to David Pentin, a Trustee of the Canterbury Festival Foundation and one of the local charities to benefit from this initiative.
The four individual shoots which generously hosted the shoot day just before Christmas, awarded £40,000 to the GWCT with £10,000 being shared between the remaining Kent charities. These range from Canterbury Festival Foundation, Kent Association for the Blind, Kent Minds and Godmersham Village Hall.
The delighted local charities were selected by the owners of the four Kent shoots at Bourne Shoot, Denne Hill, Crundale and Godmersham Park, who had generously donated a drive on each of their shoots in order to raise funds for these important causes. In total 250 raffle tickets were sold at £200 each. This extremely successful raffle was drawn earlier last year by Michael Bax, the Kent High Sheriff, and organised by Giles Brealy, the GWCT’s Kent County Chairman.
Mr David Pentin, a Trustee of the Canterbury Festival Foundation, who was presented with his cheque by Roddy Loder-Symonds of the Denne Hill Estate, said, "I am delighted to receive this cheque on behalf of our Canterbury Festival Foundation, which has a distinguished history as a major promoter of international arts in East Kent. This is a marvellous start to our New Year fund-raising appeal."
The Canterbury Festival Foundation is currently fundraising to purchase the offices of 8 Orange Street, which would mean a permanent home for the Festival and thereby help to secure the future of Festival. The Foundation has to date raised £270,000 of the £400,000 target and hope to have raised the full amount by 2015.
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Photocaption: Local charities benefit from raffle draw. Pictured from left: Roddy Loder-Symonds (Denne Hill Estate), Teresa Dent (Chief Executive of the GWCT), Giles Brealy (GWCT’s Kent County Chairman) and David Pentin (Trustee of the Canterbury Festival Foundation).
Notes to editors
The Game & Wildlife Conservation Trust – providing research-led conservation for a thriving countryside. The GWCT is an independent wildlife conservation charity which has carried out scientific research into Britain’s game and wildlife since the 1930s. We advise farmers and landowners on improving wildlife habitats. We employ more than 60 post-doctoral scientists and other research staff with expertise in areas such as birds, insects, mammals, farming, fish and statistics. We undertake our own research as well as projects funded by contract and grant-aid from government and private bodies.
For information, contact:
Eleanor Williams
Telephone: 07592 025476
Email: press@gwct.org.uk