Staff from a Mecca Bingo branch in Nottingham have spoken out about why they are fundraising for the local charity, Emmanuel House. To staff at the bingo chain, it feels like there’s homeless people ‘everywhere’ in the city.
Employees from Mecca Bingo on 183 Queens Street in Beeston are raising funds for Emmanuel House through tip jars and a Colour Obstacle Rush members of staff are participating in. Emmanuel House is an independent charity supporting those who are homeless, rough sleeping, in crisis or at risk of becoming homeless.
In 2023, Emmanuel House, based on Goose Gate, was £100,000 short in terms of funding as it experienced rising demand. The charity described this as a “crisis” as they launched their winter appeal.
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After hearing about what Emmanuel House does on the radio, general manager of the Mecca Bingo chain in Beeston, Sandra Mitchell wanted to see if there was a way to help the charity. Sandra said: “Over the festive period, I contacted Emmanuel House and they said we could visit them. We went and found out what they do and had a wander around.
“There, there were people giving haircuts for free, people making, serving food and racks and racks of clothes, it was a really nice atmosphere.”
As well as currently supporting Emmanuel House, Mecca Bingo supports the Carers Trust. Sandra continued: “Our partnership with Emmanuel House will ensure that we raise awareness about the charity. All our money from our tip jars will go to Emmanuel House too.”
Duty manager at the Mecca Bingo site in Beeston, Claire Bateman will be fundraising in the Colour Obstacle Rush. Claire said: “Everywhere, you see homeless people. We’ve done fundraising events before; at Easter, we did an Easter charity weekend with raffle prizes and we’re hoping this 5k course where everyone gets dressed up will get people behind us too.”
Denis Tully is the CEO for Emmanuel House. He spoke about how things are at the charity. He said: “This is a tremendous initiative by Mecca Bingo to raise awareness in the community and about the charity, these initiatives are always needed.
“Emmanuel House is very busy, the amount of homeless people are increasing, people are in need of basic provisions: clothes, showers. In the months to come, it’ll be summer and then winter, the hardest months.”
To support Emmanuel House, you can simply volunteer at the charity shop, cook, serve food and more. Denis added: “In this time of increased cost of living, there are cutbacks on people giving to charities, to compensate for this, simply volunteering in the charity shop brings in several hundreds of pounds and expenses will be paid by the charity.”
To support Mecca Bingo Beeston's fundraising attempts for Emmanuel House, if you're in a position to do so, click here.
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