C.inc Hotels has raised $185,000 for the Sydney Children’s Hospital through its twentieth annual Coogee Bay Hotel Charity Golf Day.
This year’s donation means that managing director Chris Cheung and his team have raised $2.5 million in total for the hospital through their fundraising efforts.
In a cheque presentation held on the grounds of the hospital Thursday morning, Cheung presented the latest cheque of $185,000 to Nicola Stokes, CEO of the Sydney Children’s Hospital Foundation, surrounded by the C.inc Hotels team, and fundraising supporters from Coopers, Diageo and Coca-Cola Amatil.
“[Coogee Bay Hotel] continues to demonstrate an enduring support for this amazing hospital and your focus on the long term in children’s health is really quite crucial, and sets you apart when we think about what philanthropy is, in terms of wanting to see change in the world and then actually making that change happen,” said Stokes.
Over 20 years, the $2.5 million has been used to fund growth and innovation at the hospital through many initiatives, including:
- Contributing to the redesign of operating theatres to be ‘smart’ theatres, resulting in less invasive surgery
- Nurturing current and future leaders in the clinical and research spaces
- Funding advanced training for surgeons
- Funding a clinical nurse consultant role
- Helping to double the capacity of the Short Stay Surgical Unit, allowing more children to have minor surgery and recover at home
- Funding a clinical room at the Centre for Clinical Genetics (research)
“This is a fantastic outcome. Twenty years is an incredible milestone, and raising $2.5 million is not to be taken lightly and I really appreciate the fantastic effort of the team in achieving that,” stated Cheung.
“As hotels we see ourselves as the hub of the community, not only to be welcoming people on our premises, but also in being a good neighbour and being a community leader in this respect.”
Sydney Children’s Hospital Foundation patron, Emeritus Professor Les White, said the relationship between the hotel and the foundation supported countless families: “I’m very grateful for what Chris and the hotel have done for the hospital, the children and their families. Coogee Bay Hotel is not just in the heart of Coogee, its heart is in the community.”
Looking to the future, Cheung and the team at Coogee Bay Hotel have enacted the Children’s Better Health (CBH) initiative, which commits the hotel to raising $500,000 over the next two years for innovative research.