
Over the Easter weekend camping enthusiasts from across the UK came together to set up camps in their back gardens and raised over £1,750 to help NHS nurses during this difficult time.
The nation was encouraged to grab their tents, sleeping bags and mats from their garages and pitch them up in their back gardens with their family on April 11, while donating to help nurses and wake up on Easter Sunday all refreshed!
Campers were also encouraged to post a picture to Instagram using the hashtag #nightoutforthenurses and the event generated a very positive response with over 20 instagram videos posted.
The initiative, which was inspired by 16-year-old Scarlett Street, daughter of Damon Street, European General Manager of Exxel Outdoor, brand owner of camping brand Kelty, exceeded its original target of £1,000 by more than 75 per cent. All proceeds will go to the NHS Charities Together initiative to support NHS staff and volunteers caring for COVID-19 patients.
The event received some great publicity, with outdoor and camping publications promoting the great cause, as well as radio stations local to Scarlett and Damon’s home town of Rugby – BBC Radio Coventry and Warwickshire, as well BBC Radio Oxford getting involved to push the message.
Damon Street said: “We had a great response to Scarlett’s campaign for a well deserving Charity. The great weather and lack of traffic meant most people got to sleep uninterrupted except from the odd bird or two. From the back of this we’ve had a number of businesses contact us to run their own ‘Night Out For The Nurses’ so we hope to see more people getting involved over the coming weeks.
“Absolute Snow came on board very early and ran a competition for customers to win a Kelty garden camping set up, the winner will be announced very soon! If your business would like to get involved please get in touch and we’ll assist you with all the assets you need.”