Marriott Hotel Volunteeers

On Friday, five members of the sales team from three Edinburgh Marriott Hotels donated their time to Waverley Care to source items to help deliver services. Craig Irving, Director of Sales and Marketing at Dalmahoy Hotel wrote a piece for STV Local's website describing their day.  Click here to go to STV local's website or read the article below:

It was with some relief when we turned up at Waverley Care on Friday morning for our apprentice style challenge that we were not met by Sir Alan Sugar.

The prospect of hearing that infamous line ‘your fired’ was not one any of us was prepared for.

Pleasantly we received a very warm welcome at the Scottish HIV charity’s headquarters and soon had a cup of coffee in one hand and a fundraising wish list in the other.

‘We’ are the sales teams of the Marriott Hotels in Edinburgh and for one day only we swapped selling hotels for seeking charity donations.

Our day out of the office was part of Marriott’s ‘Spirit to Serve’ initiative, which aims to give back to the local community by encouraging staff to spend a work day volunteering for charitable causes.

There were lots of arms bent, favours called in, heart strings tugged and copious amounts of caffeine and home baking consumed… not like on the real apprentice!

We were blown away by the generosity of the people we contacted and managed to secure some fabulous donations, from TVs and PlayStation 2s to dancing shoes and even tree bark for the path at an allotment.

We want to thank our customers and contacts for their amazing generosity in these tough economic times and know that the donations will help to make a real difference to those living with HIV and Hepatitis C in Scotland.

Specific thanks to Edinburgh Zoo for donating 10 admission tickets, Catering World Rutherglen for donating a brand new Catering Urn and to Forth Resource Management for donating the bark for the allotment.

It was very rewarding to be able to take a break from our day to day jobs and feel like we were able to make a difference, albeit in a small way, to help such a worthy cause.

Other thanks go to: BSkyB, Apex Hotels, The George Hotel, Hotel Missoni, Heart of Midlothian Football Club, The Scottish Deer Centre, Liliums Flowers, The Chocolatier of Glasgow, Dobbies Garden Centres, L’Art du Vin, Highland Explorer Tours, Meeting Makers, The Flowerhouse, Uphall Golf Club, Jim’s Mowing, Copperswood Scotland, Russell Nelson, Yale locks, Clouds Accommodation Agency, Marriott Dalmahoy, Marriott Gosforth Park, Residence Inn by Marriott, Edinburgh Marriott Hotel, Energywise Health & Fitness, Matthew Quinn, Sarah Priestly, Susan Thackery, Sodexo.