Dalata Hotel Group, the largest hotel operator in Ireland, announced last week that it will be supporting the Marie Keating Foundation, Leukaemia Care and Air Ambulance Northern Ireland, as the company’s three charity partners over the next three years.
The partnerships are part of the group’s “Dalata Digs Deep” initiative which sees fundraising activities taking place at all 47 of the company’s hotels across Ireland, the UK and Europe.
As an employee driven initiative, it was decided through an employee vote that ‘Health and Wellbeing’ would be a core focus for the next fundraising period. The three charities were selected by Dalata’s dedicated Charity Committee who looked at specific charities focused on improving lives, with each charity representing a different geographical region (Republic of Ireland, Great Britain and Northern Ireland).
Dalata Hotel Group, which operates Clayton and Maldron Hotels, raised an incredible €1.5m for its previous charity partners through employee fundraising and matching corporate donations.
Dalata Hotel Group’s Chief Operating Officer, Des McCann said the company is proud to be continuing its charity work to support the Marie Keating Foundation, Leukaemia Care and Air Ambulance Northern Ireland over the coming years.
He said: “Great consideration has gone into selecting our new charity partners for the next three years. Our approach is to engage with our teams to understand the issues they care about which then allows Dalata and the charity to build a more meaningful partnership over a three year period.
“All of our charities are focussed on helping to save lives. We know the pandemic has put health care providers under extreme strain, both in Ireland and the UK, therefore it was important to us to select charities which do so much great work in helping to support our health services.”
Based in Ireland, the Marie Keating Foundation is focused on raising the awareness of cancer, and the importance of early detection. The Foundation also provides a range of support services for patients at every step of a cancer journey.
Together, Dalata Hotel Group and Marie Keating Foundation will strive to deliver ‘Dalata’s Drive to Defeat Cancer’. This will involve fundraising to support Marie Keating’s mobile information units to go nationwide and facilitate over 100,000 individual conversations between nurses and members of the public on spotting the signs of cancer. The co-branded mobile units will also visit Dalata hotels across Ireland, with the local community invited to come along, helping save lives.
Leukaemia Care is a blood cancer support charity dedicated to ensuring that anyone affected by blood cancer in Great Britain receives the right information, advice and support. The Dalata partnership will support leukaemia patients aged between 0-25 years old. The hotel group will be providing long stay accommodation close to the hospital that can administer a new treatment called CAR-T. Only 9 hospitals in GB offer this treatment and the locations match conveniently with Dalata hotels, with this project ensuring it is possible for patients to get the treatment they need.
Air Ambulance NI operates a helicopter emergency medical service dedicated to responding to serious trauma and medical emergencies in Northern Ireland. Funds raised by Dalata will support any number of costs including helicopter rental, fuel, the airbase, pilots, engineering and maintenance of the aircraft, aviation training or a flight suit for the medics.
Dalata’s fundraising efforts this year will include teams seeking sponsorship as they undertake challenges in 2022 and a range of activities for Dalata Digs Deep Week in September, a key week for raising charitable donations across all hotels. See www.dalatahotelgroup.com
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