Pub charity website pledges hit £100,000

A website that shows how much money licensees raise for charity has been hailed a success after £100,000 was pledged in the first week

PubAid was founded to highlight the role of the licensed trade in raising funds for charities and to counteract negative publicity about the trade.

Registered pubs' planned fundraising activities range from weekly quizzes and charity nights to motorbike egg runs and 24-hour darts marathons. The first registration on the site was logged moments after the website went live and was made by Emily and Mark Hammick, owners of the Gaggle of Geese in Dorchester.

In the past, the couple have raised large sums for charity and have made the pub famous among regulars and locals as a result of their twice-yearly Charity Goose Auction.

Mark said: "PubAid is a fantastic initiative that the entire sector should be involved with. For years, The Gaggle of Geese has held a bi-yearly poultry auction and it is great that we now have an outlet by which we can truly publicise this and the amounts raised."

A PubAid spokesman said: "At a time when the sector is under the coil, it is vital that we continue to tell the media just how much good comes from the licensed retail community and re-establish ourselves as a core feature of every village, town and city.

"We are astounded by the response we have received, and are continuing to receive, from licensees across the country and are certain that PubAid will not fail to result in generating endless column inches of positive stories about the generosity of our charitable industry."

Click PubAid​ to visit the site.