August 05, 2020 Industry news
GS1 UK is pleased to announce that our new corporate charity is The Honeypot Children’s Charity, an organisation focused on ensuring every child has the opportunity to enjoy their childhood.
Established in 1996, The Honeypot Children’s Charity works to enhance the lives of young carers, aged five to 12 years old, by providing respite and on-going outreach support. Across the UK, the charity gives young carers a break from demanding and stressful responsibilities at home by providing a safe, nurturing environment where children at risk can develop their full potential.
Honeypot’s vision is for every child to be able to make the most of their one chance at childhood. They do this by providing respite breaks at one of their two sites, in Hampshire and Pen y Bryn, where young carers can make new friends, have fun and take a break from their caring roles.
The sites are like mini hotels for the children, and the staff engage them in a wide range of activities such as swimming, bike rides, trampolining, building dens, looking after the Honeypot pets, arts and crafts, pyjama parties, bedtime stories and trips to the local beach or theme park. Breaks run throughout the school holidays and every weekend, enabling children to play, have fun and make happy memories to cherish for years to come.
Alongside the respite breaks, Honeypot provide outreach support where they visit children in their local area and give them a chance to reconnect with the friends they made on their Honeypot breaks. Each Honeypot child also receives a birthday card and Christmas present from the Honeypot team.
This is a wonderful charity and one that will truly benefit from the support of the GS1 UK team. Many of us take our childhood for granted, but without the support of Honeypot, young carers may not get to experience the joy of simply being carefree.”
Gary Lynch, CEO at GS1 UK
HR coordinator, Louise Watt is heading up the charity team at GS1 UK and has plenty of ideas on how to raise funds for Honeypot.
“We are really excited about supporting The Honeypot Children’s Charity and have been looking at interesting ways of incorporating either bees or honey into our fundraising activities. Some initial ideas include a virtual cook along (with honey featuring as a key ingredient), a bee themed company quiz, a social distanced nature walk, yellow and black dress down Fridays and a bee themed fun run.
“We are aiming to raise enough money, over the next 12 months, to provide a full year of support to at least 20 Honeypot children. It is so important these young carers get chance to enjoy their childhood, so we are honoured to be helping in any way we can,” said Watt.