A PARTY company has volunteered countless hours to give children memories they’ll never forget while supporting Barnsley Hospital in the process.
For the past two years staff at The Copycat Party Company in Hoyland have selflessly donated their support and services to enable the annual Grand Ball event at Barnsley Hospital which allows children to dress up and act like royalty for one night a year while raising funds for the hospital.
Owner Laura Hawkins actively communicates and works with staff at the hospital’s charity to plan ideas that make these events a success.
In her free time, she prepares activity packs, develops games and provides prizes for the events, which always make children feel special and brings a smile to their faces.
Laura told the Chronicle: “I’ve worked with Barnsley hospital charity for a number of years and when the new team came in they asked if I had any ideas.
“One of the things we’d never done before was a royal ball and so I asked if they’d be interested in doing that.
“So we hosted the event, we came up with the idea and tried to get as many apprentices and people involved as we could.
“It went down really well, we enjoyed it and it was heaps of fun.
“We try and choose one charity or one event a year that we can give something back to as you can imagine we’re asked a massive amount.
“Because this is our full time job there’s only so much we can do, but when we do something we do it to the full extent that we possibly can.
“It’s lovely, and it’s so lovely that we’ve been able to raise a good amount of money for the charity as well.
“Without sounding cheesy it’s a massive massive team effort, not just from our side of things but from Barnsley Hospital Charity as well so it’s been a lovely partnership to work on.”
For their unwavering commitment to the children at the hospital, Laura and her team have been nominated as Hospital Heroes at this year’s Proud of Barnsley.
“I’m absolutely thrilled that the lovely people at Barnsley Hospital Charity have nominated me,” Laura added.
“It’s an absolute honour to be nominated.”
Jane Mills, charity development manager at the hospital, said: “Laura is an amazing, creative individual and the support she has given our charity with her creative knowledge, expertise, time and dedication is simply outstanding and we send our heartfelt thanks.”
