London training college raises thousands of pounds for Woodford Green’s Haven House

The night had a circus theme, with stilt walkers and magicians performing throughout the evening. (Image: Archant)

Quest Professional, a training college based in London, chose to dedicate an evening to making money for Haven House children’s hospice, based in the High Road, Woodford Green.

Student at the college, Elisia Guglielmucci, 19, from Epping, said: “For a lot of the girls it was the local charity and we know all of the good work they do so thought it would be great to give the money to them.”

The night was organised by 18 girls who are on a 36 week professional diploma programme, and were told by their tutor last September that they had to organise an event themselves, as part of the course.

Elisia said: “We were sort of thrown into the deep end but event management is something a lot of the girls would like to do so it was a great opportunity for us.”

The night had a circus theme, where magicians and stilt walkers roamed the hall at the Cafe de Paris in London, and even included performances from Britain’s Got Talent runner up Charlotte Jaconelli and The Voice winner Leanne Jarvis who wowed audiences with their performances.

Elisia said: “We met Leanne at the opening of the Epping branch of Haven House and she agreed to take part and one of the girls from the college knows Charlotte from school so we just used as many of our contacts as possible to create the show.”

Around 140 guests were invited to the show and managed to raise a grand total of around £30,000 that night alone.

Chief executive at Haven House children’s hospice, Mike Palfreman, said: “Thank you to the students at Quest for organising an incredible evening in aid of Haven House at Café de Paris. It was also great to see performers Leanne Jarvis and Charlotte Jaconelli supporting the event. They have raised a truly phenomenal amount which will make a huge difference to children and families that we support.”