The Snowman Spectacular Raises a Record-Breaking £566,025 for Chestnut Tree House Children’s Hospice
Christmas is a time of year for celebration and giving, and the guests of the Chestnut Tree House Snowman Spectacular showed their generosity by raising more than half a million pounds for the second year running. The money that was raised will go towards helping Chestnut Tree House provide hospice care and community services for children and young people throughout East and West Sussex and South East Hampshire with progressive life-shortening conditions. Chestnut Tree House cares for and supports around 300 children at a cost of £3.5 million per annum, yet receives less than 7% of its funding from the government. The hospice heavily relies on charitable support to provide its services, and The Snowman Spectacular Ball is the key event of the year to raise funds.
Upon arrival at the Hilton Brighton Metropole, guests were shown to the Oxford Suite balcony for drinks, and down to the Gift Grotto and the silent auction display to see what tempting items were on offer to raise money. The evening’s entertainment was kick-started by The Electric Trio, before Matthew VanKan provided live Christmas themed music throughout dinner.
The musical highlight of the evening was undoubtedly Björn Again, who ensured that every person in the room was dancing while they performed a fantastic selection of ABBA’s back catalogue. However, the main highlight of the evening could be none other than the inspirational speech of 18 year-old Rebecca Torricelli. She talked about how she had been using the services of Chestnut Tree House since she was five years old, and how the charity has helped her and her family through bad times as well as good. Rebecca’s heartfelt speech came to a close with a standing ovation from the audience and there was not a single dry eye in the room.
The evening was rounded off with dancing by The Ultimate Jerseys, featuring some of the West End cast from ‘Jersey Boys’. Candy Apple Blue finished the night’s entertainment proceedings with a variety of pop and soul classics. Revellers danced long into the night before it was eventually time to bring the event to a close.
This year’s Snowman Spectacular was the biggest yet, with more than 560 guests raising a record amount of money. Chestnut Tree House and E3 will be hoping to break both those records again next time around for the Snowman Spectacular 2018. David Hill of E3 said of the event, ‘The Snowman Spectacular is the event that always crowns our year, and this year has been no exception. From our first involvement to the final production, the event went perfectly, and we are happy to have been involved in such a wonderful evening for a truly great cause.’
For E3, The Snowman Spectacular is our biggest gala event of the year and we are already looking forward to the 2018 ball where we will celebrate the fifteenth birthday of Chestnut Tree House.
