28 March 2018
By Elaine Murphy
elaine@TheCork.ie
Cork’s Imperial Hotel will host a very special Easter Chocolate Sale on today (Wednesday 28th) and tomorrow (Thursday 29th), with all proceeds raised going to Pieta House.
The hotel’s talented pastry chefs Rebecca English and Bernadette Harrington will create an array of tempting chocolate treats including Easter eggs, chocolate hampers and muffins, all of which will be on sale in the foyer of the hotel for two days in the lead up to the long weekend.
The Easter Chocolate Sale marks the start of an “egg-citing” charity partnership between the Flynn family owned Imperial Hotel and Pieta House. This is the first of a number of fundraising events and initiatives that are planned for the year ahead, including the Imperial Hotel staffs participation in Pieta House’s ‘Darkness Into Light’ walk this May, and the hotel’s popular annual Black Tie Gala Ball which will take place in October.
Pieta House offers a free, accessible and community-based service for people that have attempted, are thinking about, or have been bereaved by suicide, and people engaging in self-harm. The nationwide charity provides round the clock services by fully accredited therapists. People can connect with a Pieta House therapist by phone, face-to-face, email, text or by post, so there is always someone to talk to.
Angela Horgan, Funding and Advocacy Coordinator at Pieta House Cork, who was on hand to announce details of the partnership and the Easter Sale said “Of all of Pieta House’s centres, the Cork service is the busiest, seeing an average of 84 people every day. The service is completely free of charge, but we rely heavily on donations to meet this need. All funds raised in Cork directly support the Cork centre; and engaging with organisations such as the Imperial Hotel is so important to the work we do. We are so grateful to the wonderful team in the hotel who have pledged their support to our cause; support like this helps us to bring people from a place where suicide and self-harm seem like the only option, to one of comfort and hope.”
Speaking at the launch of the partnership Frits Potgieter, General Manager of the Imperial Hotel said “With Easter just around the corner, chocolate is at the forefront of many people’s minds, and we would encourage you to pop into our foyer on Wednesday and Thursday to fulfil all your chocolate cravings, and at the same time support our official charity partner, Pieta House. We are very proud to lend our support to this worthy cause for the coming year, and through this partnership we hope to make a real difference in helping Pieta House to further raise awareness around self-harm and suicide in Ireland.”
The Imperial Hotel’s Easter Chocolate Sale will run in the hotel’s foyer on Cork City’s South Mall throughout the day on Wednesday 28th and Thursday 29th March.