On the 5th December Alison McGregor of Lizard Peninsular Cottages presented Elanor Hoskin, Chief Executive of CHICKS, with a cheque totalling £890 on behalf of it 2011 Visitor Payback Scheme.

The CHICKS Winter Ball was a runaway success. Nearly 300 guests dressed in their finest were treated to some great food and drink, some stunning auction prizes and one of the best live bands around.

What better way to brighten a wet and windy Thursday morning than wrapping 1,200 Christmas Presents – that'll keep you warm!

At CHICKS our free respite breaks for disadvantaged children are just the beginning – we support the children throughout the year and at Christmas every child that has visited one of our retreats receives a gift – two in fact this year.

Everyone at CHICKS is very proud at reaching the milestone of providing over 9000 free respite breaks to disadvantaged children since we began in 1992. As a senior management team we have been doing a lot of thinking about how we can protect the children’s free respite breaks from the current economic climate.

Mas had a great time meeting pupils and staff at Kelly College Prep School recently, he got to have loads of hugs and high fives!

Lastest Update

CHICKS Children on both Tap and Secret Garden camp enjoyed a great evening out for Bonfire night last weekend. Children from our Moorland retreat stayed local and ventured up to Brentor Church to enjoy a near by display.

On Saturday 29th October 25 CHICKS children from the Halcyon Centre in Plymouth were lucky enough to be invited to a special Ice Skating Halloween Party hosted by The Ice Angels in Plymouth City Centre.

CHICKS Children on the Ice

The children at CHICKS have enjoyed six days of fabulous activities and special events to celebrate our 9000th child coming on camp since we began in 1992.

Celebrations and Spooks all in One Weekend!

This Halloween weekend marks a land mark event in the CHICKS calendar as today (Thursday 27th October) our 9,000 child is going to arrive on Tango Camp. This is a huge milestone for the charity that we are very proud of. It means that 9000 disadvantaged children from across the UK have benefitted from our free six day respite breaks making thousands of happy memories.

We were really pleased to welcome Linda and Jeff Wylde to the Moorland Retreat this week. Jeff and Linda have supported CHICKS for a number of years and came to Moorland to put in place a bench in memory of their daughter Karen. Karen was a children's nurse and passionate about supporting disadvantaged children.

Jeff who is a blacksmith made the bench himself; pictured are some of the children on camp this week trying it out for size in the trampoline barn.

Linda and Jeff have spent two days of their visit tidying up the gardens at the Moorland Retreat, all of us at CHICKS would like to say a really big thank you!

Moorland Retreat had a lot of TLC from some very hard working accountants from the Plymouth KPMG office. The staff came for one day and transformed the basketball area with colourful murals of countryside scenes, racing cars and rainbows. The veg patch had an autumn tidy up, with baskets of tomatoes, rhubarb, courgettes and apples picked and ready for the kitchen. Some super-star gardeners also trimmed a huge privet hedge, re-built some rock borders and planted lovely flower beds.

Thank you so much to the team of hard workers from Barclays Corporate who helped to build a stage for the children to perfom on, erect a fence for the football pitch and give a splash of paint at our Costal retreat.

It was a brilliant day and we thoroughtly enjoyed hanging out with the team. Your enthusiasm and sense of humour is fantastic. Clearly a very strong team and a great company to work for.

Take a look at the slideshow to see them all in action.

Well done to everyone who took part in the Barclays Corporate - Relay for CHICKS.

CONGRATULATIONS for completing the challenge of walking, running and cycling from Stoke to Brentor in 13-days! It has been a massive team effort and everyone at CHICKS would like to say a huge 'THANK YOU' for your support and raising significant funds to help provide free respite breaks for the disadvantaged children that we work with.

To find out how Barclays Corporate has made a difference, please ... read more.

Day 12 & 13 of the Barclays Corporate - Relay for CHICKS

The Final 2 Days of Mr Chicks Epic Journey

After his marathon journey the previous day Mr Chicks decided to have a bit of a lie in on Friday morning – the heavy pounding of mile after mile of either walking or cycling or running were starting to take their toll on his physical appearance (or am I getting confused with the guy in the "Name the Bear" competition!).

You can donate to the Devon & Cornwall Team ..., see the photos and read their blog to find out how they got on ...

Day 11 of the Barclays Corporate - Relay for CHICKS

Mr Chicks awoke early in the knowledge that he had a busy day ahead of him with nearly 90 miles to cover. Unfortunately he went back to sleep & was late starting the first leg of his day, a walk from Park House to the Barclays Wealth offices in the middle of Bristol (approx. 8 miles). I guess after 10 days of walking, cycling & running he deserved a lie in!

You can donate to the South West Team ...and read their blog to find out how they got on ...

Day 10 of the Barclays Corporate - Relay for CHICKS

Well the sun shone on Gloucestershire for our 30 mile leg to Bristol Park House.

Which is more than can be said for our friends from Wales who delivered Mr Chicks to us after a day of drizzle on Tuesday. They arrived at 2.30pm to a cheer from our team (and the builders working next door). After coffee and an assortment of cakes and buns they started to dry out.

You can donate to the Bath, Gloucester & Wiltshire Team ...and read their blog to find out how they got on ...

CHICKS Champion Ian Wesley: Devon's own David Walliams

Ian has raised over £5000 for CHICKS by completing a swimming challenge!

David Walliams may have passed through seven English counties as he swam the length of the Thames, but CHICKS supporter Ian Wesley swam between two continents, with a sponsored swim that started in Europe and finished in Asia.

Day 8 & 9 of the Barclays Corporate - Relay for CHICKS

You can donate to the Wales Team ...and read their blog to find out how they got on ...

Day 5 of the Barclays Corporate - Relay for CHICKS

All assembled at 9am sharp in Wolverhampton, ready to face the 14 miles ahead of us.

Pete and Mark dressed head to toe in Lycra, Julian sporting a rather impressive, Batman-esq utility belt, laden with water and hydration gels and Matt in his jeans. You could tell who the professionals were!

John called a quick team photo with Mr CHICKS, and we were off.

You can donate to the Birmingham Team ...and read their blog to find out how they got on ...

Gary could tell it was going to be an interesting day by the fact that at 05:20 He was applying sun tan lotion, even though it was still dark outside and the death throes of hurricane Katia were still trying to rip branches from the trees and pry tiles off the roof.

You can donate to the Black Country Team ...and read their blog to find out how they got on ...

We've got amazing new solar panels funded by Atass Respect.

Day 2 of the Barclays Corporate - Relay for CHICKS.

Mr CHICKS continues on his journey with the Barclays Corporate Nottingham & Derby team.

You can donate to the Nottingham & Derby team fundraising page and read their blog to find out how they got on ...

Day 1 of the Barclays Corporate - Relay for CHICKS

Barclays Corporate teams across the country will be taking part in a 'Relay for CHICKS' over the next two weeks (12-24 Sept 2011) in order to raise £100,000 for CHICKS. They will be walking, running and cycling between their offices in the Midlands, Wales and the South West. The route starts from Stoke and finishes at our Moorland Retreat in Brentor, Devon.

You can donate to the Staffordshire, Cheshire & Shropshire team fundraising page and read their blog to find out how they got on ...  

This Bank Holiday Monday 16 underpriviledged children enjoying a respite break at CHICKS had the chance to make some very special memories, all thanks to a Tweet!

Morris Camp at Moorland Retreat was the sixth to be supported by the Thomas Cook Children's Charity this year. With another two camps being funded, we are delighted to have provided free respite breaks for 96 disadvantaged children to date ... with another 32 children yet to enjoy a rewarding experience which they will never forget.

Macerena Camp has just finished, where our local corporate partner Ginsters helped fund the Young Carers group.

As young carers, this is why they needed a break....

Our very own Elle Gray, CHICKS Corporate & Events Fundraiser, is touring the country visiting the fantastic Southern Co-operative stores who are doing an amazing job of raising awarenss about CHICKS for their annual Awareness Week.

A team of top Directors at Wrigley cycled from London to Paris on 24-27 June 2011.

The team cycled 234miles over 3 days and through 2 countries. The challenge started at Crystal Palace in London and finished at the Eiffel Tower in Paris. To date they have raised a staggering £7,278 in support of CHICKS.

Wrigleys brighten up Coastal Retreat

A huge team of volunteers came along to CHICKS Coastal Retreat to paint, mend and tidy up the retreat to make areas safe for the children to play in.

The team mainly from the engineering department spent the morning in the bright sunshine painting and tidying the area around the back of the Trampoline barn – this is where we had a maze started by another group and Wrigleys kindly completed it for us – also there was a lot of fencing put in place around the area.

Jig Camp at Moorland Retreat was the third to be supported by the Thomas Cook Children's Charity this year. With another five camps being funded, we are delighted to have provided free respite breaks for 48 disadvantaged children to date ... with another 77 children yet to enjoy a rewarding experience which they will never forget.

The Met Office and Exeter University brighten up Moorland Retreat.

Volunteers from the Met Office and Exeter University came to Moorland Retreat on Wednesday 29th June 2011 to help tidy, garden, paint and repair several areas of our retreat.  

QAS had a Cake Sale last week with delicous home baked treats made by staff. How could they resist?

 
Raychel is leaving us

We are all very sad here at CHICKS today as one of our team is moving on.   Raychel Conway is a Plymouth University Student who has been working with us since last September on a work placement. She is leaving to return home for the Summer before returning to Uni to finish her degree in Event Management.  

She has been an invaluable member of the team helping in all manner of ways, it has been a brilliant experience for both Raychel and CHICKS as she has learnt such a lot from us about organising events and we likewise have benefited from her adaptability and support in all departments.

Raychel says "I have thoroughly enjoyed my time at CHICKS you couldn't ask for more fantastic people to work with. Its been an experience I will never forget. I will really miss CHICKS."

 
Children meet the Dentist

This weekend Charles McGregor, a camp volunteer and huge CHICKS supporter, enjoyed a very special Bentley Experience! He and his two sons spent the day at Brooklands, the famous British racing track, and enjoyed a ride in Bessa, a 1927 Bentley who raced at Brooklands in the Thirties. Peter Flood (seen here with Charles' sons and Bessa) generously donated the prize for the auction at our Gala Ball last November.

We're delighted to announce the appointment of our new CEO, Elanor Hoskin.

Elanor (seen here playing table football with some of the children on camp) was previously Head of Fundraising and Communications at CHICKS and has been with us for seven years.

Marion Luckhurst, our Chair of Trustees said: "We are delighted with the appointment. It is particularly satisfying when an internal candidate is successful in a strong field of external candidates. We wish Elanor every success and are confident that she will make a huge difference to the charity."

The camp theme this year at Coastal Retreat is Disney films and Looney Tunes certainly made the most of dressing up in the cartoon characters.

 
Smooth day at CHICKS

Three staff from The Wrigleys Company Ltd, Sian, Louisa and Lauren attended Highland camp yesterday at CHICKS Moorland to make smoothies and do some acrylic painting with the children.   The children took great delight in cutting up the fresh fruit and making some yummy smoothies including strawberries, blueberries and mangos to name just a few of the fruit selection.

We would like to thank members of the Family Law Bar Association who invited us to attend their Annual Conference on 7th May 2011.

Our Chair Trustee, Marion Luckhurst; Acting CEO, Elanor Hoskin and Corporate Fundraiser, Josephne Butcher gave a presentation on CHICKS and the work we do.

The QAS Marathon Walk took place on the 21st May with 15 members of staff walking 26.2 miles in just over 8 hours.

A team of four from Ginsters took part in the Samworth Challenge last weekend to raise vital funds for CHICKS.

Well Wednesday 18th May 2011 saw the first CHICKS Big Bear Challenge of the year. With rain looming we were worried that maybe people would have been put off but the sunshine came out in the afternoon to shine on our glorious event.

In 2010, the Thomas Cook Children's Charity very generously donated £100,000 to fund eight camps. Flamenco Camp was the first to be sponsored and it certainly made a huge impact.

Mas here, I hope you all had a lovely Easter Break and have been enjoying the sunshine as much as I have.

After eating all my yummy chocolate eggs I'm straight into my training for the Big Bear Challenge on Wednesday 18th May. With only two weeks to go I'm getting nervous about taking on the crazy plank crossing! Eek!

On February 16th 2011 we had our Big Chicks Sponsored walk at Monkton Pre-Prep. We were accompanied by an extremely large Mother Hen who watched over each and every little chick to make sure they were safe and happy on their walk.

Hello all

I am the new Community and Events fundraiser (South & SW) for CHICKS and yesterday I had the privilege of spending a whole day as a volunteer with the kids from "Bopping" camp here at our Moorland Retreat.

On Monday night this week CHICKS were invited by the Lions Club of Plymouth to a skittles evening at the Plymouth Telecoms Social Club. The night was a fantastic success and CHICKS are very thankful to the wives and partners of the Lions Club members who ever so kindly donated £400. There was also a raffle on the evening which raised a further £64.

Congratulations to Paul Thorpe and John Drain who successfully attempted the climb to the summit of Kilimanjaro, the highest free standing mountain in the world at 5,895m.

 
The CHICKS team are excitedly waiting to see the first children of 2011 arrive at our Moorland and Coastal retreats today. 

The team at CHICKS are all very excited as the Southern Co-operative support team are fitting our new kitchen at Moorland Retreat. Total Design are providing the staff to refurbish our new more modern kitchen and we are all eager to see the finished result.  

Gareth Williams, from Experian QAS, auctioned two hours of his time to colleagues as part of the company's online auction 'qBAY' in support of CHICKS. The IS Team secured the highest bid and cleverly insisted Gareth sells cup-cakes and cookies to staff ... whilst dressed as a clown!

CHICKS are incredibly grateful to have received a wopping £100,000 donation from the Thomas Cook Childrens Charity.

Starting on the 9th February 2011, Paul Thorpe and John Drain will be climbing to the summit of Kilimanjaro, the highest freestanding mountain in the world and the highest point on the African Continent (5895m/19,340').

Prince William and Kate Middleton are considering asking their guests to donate to charity in lieu of presents, according to Sky News. At CHICKS we’re ahead of the trend – check out our Give In Celebration pages for ideas for weddings, new babies and much more! After all, if it’s good enough for Will and Kate…