As a business, we focus on the ideas of improving people’s lifestyles with a UK holiday home whether it be a lodge, chalet, or caravan to escape to - but we think it is also important to look outside of our own business needs and look at the needs of others in our communities.
We have helped several charities, community projects or events over the years. Some have been small donations, some have been the organising of large scale events to help others and in between. We take a look back at the some of the positive impacts we have made for others in need...
Broadlands Park & Marina Easter Weekend Charity Raffle
In support of the East Anglian Air Ambulance During our Easter Open Weekend at Tingdene Broadlands Park & Marina, we held a Raffle for this 2KG Easter Egg and raised an incredible £243.40.
The Raffle took place in the Bar & Restaurant on-site on Easter Sunday; our lucky winners Alan, Sue and their granddaughter Anna were presented with the amazing egg in the reception at Broadlands Park & Marina.
At Tingdene Broadlands Park & Marina we were very eggcited to receive the huge 2KG Easter Egg to help us support a fantastic charity, the East Anglian Air Ambulance and would very much like to thank Kinnerton Confectionery for this wonderful donation to our raffle.
Tingdene were proud to sponsor Lowestoft Town FC for the 2022/ 2023 season
The Football Club and Centre of Excellence form an important and integral part of the local community, and provide a clear path for talented youngsters to progress and develop their skills.
Further to sponsoring the Waveney Bobcats, Power Boat Racing and other local sporting events and teams in recent years, Tingdene wanted to continue this important work by sponsoring Lowestoft Town FC and the Centre of Excellence in 2022. The Centre of Excellence training kits looked particularly fantastic, and we were incredibly proud to see the Tingdene logo on the back!
Well done to the ‘Trawler Boys’ on a great season!
Greg Doggett
Operations Manager – South
Tingdene sponsor local Powerboat racing Team
Broadlands Park & Marina, part of Tingdene Lifestyle and have helped sponsor this family Powerboat racing team so they can race nationally.
''Tingdene are proud to help support the local community and this family team. The sport shows of one of the many positive aspects of Oulton Broad. Getting people excited about water-based sports & leisure activities at this great location on the Broads National Park is what we are passionate about. Many of our holiday property owners, holiday guests and berthholders at our marina take advantage of this stretch of water also, from enjoying watching the Powerboat racing, to taking out the boat on the Broads, to even trying something new like kayaking at the local sailing club - there is lots to do on the water here!''
Greg Doggett, Area Manager of Tingdene Holiday Parks
Slow down! Tingdene Lifestyle support Apple Car Racing Team…
Tingdene Lifestyle helps support Apple Car Racing team, a Norfolk-based family-run team where the drivers are father and son! The car is a 2017 Renault Clio Cup. If you are lucky enough to catch the car and team in action you may even spot Tingdene on the back, but of course, this depends on how quick they are going!
Back of the net! Tingdene Lifestyle has a ball by supporting local community football teams in Suffolk!
In 2022 Tingdene Lifestyle is supporting Waveney ‘Bobcats’ youth team and Lowestoft Town Football Club! Taking part in sport can help us feel fitter, healthier, and mentally strong, and that is just the start of it. Football and sport are all about families, community, and well-being. so Tingdene Lifestyle is extremely proud to support Lowestoft Town FC and The Waveney Bobcats!
Free accommodation to key workers during the COVID-19 crisis
Tingdene Broadlands Park & Marina in Oulton Broad is offering FREE accommodation to all NHS Staff and Key Workers who are required to work away from home and their families, or if they need to self-isolate during the current crisis.
Tingdene Lifestyle and Holidays for Allseasons is proud to support families in need
Tingdene Lifestyle’s holiday bookings sector, Holidays for Allseasons, are proud to support The Family Holiday Association by providing short breaks for families that are coping with some of the toughest challenge’s life can bring.
Skatepark at Carlton Meadow
Tingdene have helped contribute towards an exciting new skate park! In partnership with Waveney Norse, Sentinel Leisure Trust and working closely with Carlton Colville Town Council, Waveney District Council has already invested £100,000 of Section 106 contributions from nearby housing developments to fund a three-stage refurbishment of Carlton Meadow Park, off Lowestoft Road.
Following an evaluation of Council-owned play spaces carried out by Sentinel last year, Carlton Meadow Park was identified as one of several play areas in need of development. Waveney Norse has now completed the first two stages of refurbishment, which include the installation of a new multi-use games arena and junior play equipment. The final stage will include landscaping and the creation of a concrete ‘formed’ skate park.
Carlton Meadow Skate Park is now officially open, thanks to Waveney District Countil, Carlton Colville Town Council and WREN, as well as Lowestoft Lions, East Coast Rotary, Rope and Tingdene!
The skatepark has been in the pipeline since 2015, and put together with help from Sentinel Leisure Trust and Waveney Norse.
Graham Catchpole of Waveney District Council said that the park’s opening highlighted the district council’s commitment to youth provision in the area.
“For the district as a whole this is really impressive because we’ve now got a skate park in Kessingland, one in Normanston Park and there’s one about to be started in Beccles.”
“A lot of youngsters say to us they haven’t got anything to do, but we’re developing a network of different skate parks and showing we’re not ignoring their concerns.”
Carlton Colville Skate Plaza has officially opened. Picture: Thomas Chapman
The Vice Chairman of the Town Council, Jill Tyler, who lead the project said credit was due for some of the town’s unsung heroes.
“I’d like to thank the Carlton Colville Youth Council that we had five years ago, who instigated this process. They undertook surveys, produced a report and presented it to the town council, so without them this wouldn’t have happened.
“It’s amazing we’ve got such a brilliant facility in Carlton Colville.”
Lowestoft Community Farm Project
A piece of land off the A12 by Corton was turned into a community farm, cultivated by people with learning difficulties and disabilities. The farm was been set up by the Lowestoft charity Aid and Assist. It has been manned by people with learning difficulties and disabilities and it is hoped that, as well as giving them a love of Mother Nature, their confidence and skills set will be boosted. Tingdene Lifestyle helped donate a static caravan holiday home as a base for the project. It was transported from nearby Tingdene North Denes to the site in Corton several years ago and is still used today!
Tingdene Lifestyle help Suffolk children set sail for an adventure of a lifetime!
Tingene Lifestyle have helped support East Point Academy take 10 children to Denmark; they are going to sail ‘Excelsior’ back to Lowestoft over a course of one week. Children worked alongside a team of skilled yacht masters to crew the ship, scrub the decks, cook and clean, whilst maintaining good sailing and seamanship for the journey. They lived aboard the ship; developing skills such as team work, communication, resilience, and confidence among many other multitudinous skills.
The cultural capital that an experience like this provides is immeasurable.
About the Excelsior LT472
Measuring 23.5 metres long with a 6 metre beam and a draught of 3 metres, Excelsior LT472 was built en spec by John Chambers of Lowestoft in 1921. She was purchased by a local consortium to replace their 1885 smack that had been condemned after a collision with a steamer in foggy weather.In 1935 Excelsior was sold to Bjørn Stensland of Norway and converted to a motor coaster. She survived the war, despite a near miss from a British air attack! Later she was sold on to Sverre and Ole Borrüfsen of Svinor, near Mandal which was her port of registry.
In 1971 John Wylson bought her and the following year sailed her back to Lowestoft, where he went into partnership with Mark Trevitt to restore her back to sail. The pair spent the next few years replacing Excelsior’s framing and in 1983 formed the Excelsior Trust to complete the restoration using work experience students, many of whom found full-time employment after their training.
By 1988 the restoration of Excelsior was complete. It had taken four years and many hours of work by all involved to get the deck back to ‘as built’ condition and fit out the area below to modern standards. HRH The Princess Royal commissioned Excelsior as a sail training ship on 5th August 1988.
1989 was an exciting year for Excelsior. Firstly, she circumnavigated most of Britain before starting sail training. She then entered her first Cutty Sark Tall Ships Race under skipper Mick Hart and was also the subject of an episode of Anglia TV’s Sailaway series.
In the late 1990s Excelsior’s past was revisited when she trawled again under skipper Stuart White. The process of recreating the gear and traditional clothing for the crew was the subject of a 55 minute programme by Channel 4 in their series: “The Real History Show”. It was broadcast in 2000 under the title “Fish and Ships”.
In 2006 National Historic Ships rated Excelsior as one of the nation’s 60 most important historic vessels. Today she is proudly part of the National Historic Fleet of vessels ‘of pre-eminent national or regional significance’.
Between 2005-10 Excelsior was chartered by the Cirdan Sailing Trust to provide sail training for disadvantaged young people. She returned back to the Trust in 2011.
Suffolk students return from Denmark boat trip, sponsored by Tingdene Lifestyle
East Point Academy sent nine students on a once-in-a-lifetime voyage aboard an historic fishing smack, sailing from Denmark to Lowestoft.
The students embarked aboard the 100-year-old wooden sailing boat, the Excelsior, which they will help to skipper themselves. Some of the students taking part have special educational needs; others have faced challenges such as having low self-esteem or being in care.
We received a thank you card from Chantelle from The East Point Academy for our donation towards the children Excelsior trip; Chantelle says “the children have grown in confidence and his opportunity has given them skills to work as a team.”
To Tingdene,
Thank you so much for your kind donation to our Excelsior trip. We had a wonderful time and have built upon our confidence, resilience and social skills because of it. THANK YOU!
From East Point Academy
Oliver's Footsteps
Being born premature, and suffering a bleed on the brain, brave youngster Oliver was diagnosed with cerebral palsy – which has meant that he can’t stand or walk unaided. While Oliver, from Oulton Broad, Suffolk has had to forego things that other children of a similar age would take for granted, he was selected for a major operation at Great Ormond Street Hospital in London. However this SDR (Selective Dorsal Rhizotomy) is not funded on the NHS, and so the Whittington family launched a fund-raising campaign – Oliver’s Footsteps. Tingdene helped in 2016 by organising an Easter Fete at Tingdene North Denes with a host of events and activities which helped towards the fundraising efforts! Skip forward and after 2 years, Oliver has had his check up smashing all of his targets, worked super hard. He was walked out for the first time unaided on 08/05/18 - Great news!
Some of the team with presenters talking about the Oliver's Footsteps event at Norwich’s Mustard TV!
Donation buckets ready to go for Oliver’s Footsteps fundraiser
Defibrillator machines around Lincolnshire & Suffolk
We have helped donate money towards several Defibrillator machines in several locations including Lincolnshire and Suffolk. When someone suffers a cardiac arrest, their heart stops pumping blood around their body and they will die within minutes without treatment. For every minute without defibrillation, a person’s chance of survival decreases by around 10 percent. However, a bystander giving immediate CPR and defibrillation can double a person’s chances of survival in some cases.
Gorleston Clifftop Festival
Tingdene Lifestyle have helped support the festival this year by being its main sponsor, which has helped in many ways including enabling the festival to purchase much needed safety equipment to meet its safety obligations for the 100,000+ visitors expected over the two days
'Tingdene Lifestyle is all about families, leisure time and the coast, so it was a perfect fit for us to help out with Gorleston Cliff Top Festival. We will also be attending over the weekend with some free goody bags of information. Team members will also be on hand to talk about our products on offer in East Anglia. We have several holiday parks, with holiday properties for sale, holidays, hotel breaks, as well as marinas, boat sales and residential parks, so a range of lifestyle products for all the family! We look forward to the event and are happy to support this great family festival again in 2018.'
Benjamin Race - Group Sales & Marketing Manager / Tingdene Lifestyle
Tingdene Lifestyle employees raise £1200 at charity gig in aid of Prostate Cancer UK
Greg Doggett, General Manager at Broadlands Park and Marina, organised a charity gig in aid of his friend and singer Rob Whiting who has been diagnosed with prostate cancer, playing alongside our Group Sales and Marketing Manager, Benjamin Race, as well as Rob Whiting himself and a variety of other musicians.
“I know Rob really well and I used to play in a band with him a couple of years ago. I wanted to put on the gig night not only in support of Prostate Cancer UK but also in aid of Rob and do something for him to show we’re always there for him. Various family members and friends have been affected by it and everyone knows someone affected by cancer. It will be a really fun night doing what we all love and most importantly what Rob loves."
The gig raised large crowds and £1200 for Prostate Cancer UK, with the band playing tracks from David Bowie, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Gary Moore, BB King, Eric Clapton and more.
The prostate is a gland in the male reproductive system. Prostate cancer can develop at any age, but it isn’t common under the age of 50. The average age for a man to be diagnosed with it is between 65 and 69 years old. Prostate cancer often grows slowly to start with and may never cause any problems. But some men have prostate cancer that is more likely to spread. This needs treatment to stop it spreading outside the prostate.
Prostate Cancer UK is a registered charity that was founded in 1996. It was the first national organisation for prostate cancer in the UK. It started off small and ran one day a week with a helpline and merged with Prostate Action in 2012 to form Prostate Cancer UK. They’ve invested £37m into ground breaking research in the past 20 years and continue to provide support for men.
Tingdene Lifestyle team member glows with support for St Elizabeth Hospice!
One of our staff members here at Tingdene completed the Midnight Walk in aid of St Elizabeth's Hospice. Lynn McIntyre, a receptionist at Tingdene Broadlands Park & Marina, won the Shining Star award at this years awards ceremony and has proved yet again just how bright she can shine!
The Midnight Walk is St Elizabeth's Hospice’s biggest and brightest night time walk bringing thousands of people from across Suffolk together to glow for it and make a difference to people in their local community.
Lynn said:
"When my friend Anita suggested we do the Ipswich ‘Neon Midnight Walk’ I was immediately interested. Another good friend’s husband had recently been diagnosed with Cancer and I was devastated. A twelve mile sponsored walk would give me the chance to raise some money for St Elizabeth's Hospice and I would walk for Arthur and all those suffering with Cancer and their families. Lots of family and friends were willing to support me and donate to such a worthy cause. I asked my manager Mr. Greg Doggett if he thought our company, Tingdene Lifestyle would support me. Greg in turn, approached our director Paul Spriggins who very kindly agreed to match anything I raised up to £150.00. I was so pleased. What a kind and generous gesture.
On the night, the atmosphere was electric, there was such a sense of camaraderie, a sense that we were ‘all in this together’. Two thousand five hundred people turned up, all in neon, painted faces and glow in the dark….well, everything! To be honest the walk itself was one of the hardest things I have ever done. At seven miles in and during a toilet break, I looked at myself in the mirror and thought ‘I can’t go on with this’. My feet and legs were aching, my spirits at their lowest ebb. At that moment, a very strong feeling of determination came over me and I actually spoke these words out loud to my reflection ‘This isn’t going to kill you Lynn, you don’t have Cancer, KEEP WALKING!’ and I did. I walked 12 miles in 3 and ¾ hours, that’s 30,026 steps and I managed to raise £456.00!! I am so pleased that I got to that finish line, I just cannot tell you!
To everyone who donated, family, friends, colleagues and Tingdene Directors I would like to say a very, very big thank you.”
Lowestoft Town Cricket Club
You may have even spotted us on the cricket pitch - we sponsored Lowestoft Town Cricket Club helping with their snazzy team hoodies. They said the were 'bowled over' with our support!
Helping launch children's book 'Silly Eric - Never Gives Up!'
When we first heard about this author's story and background leading her up to her inspiration to writing this range of fantastic children's books and the message behind them we offered to help support this book launch with great alacrity.
Gracie Wright lives in Southwold, Suffolk. When she was 11 years old she was hit by a car on the A12 by Wrentham. From that point on she lost all her identity in an instant. She woke up and couldn't remember who her parents were, couldn't read or write & almost felt like she was starting again with no previous memories to go by. As you can imagine this was an extremely traumatic event for her, her family and friends.
This journey for Gracie could easily be seen as a negative and desperate situation however she has turned this into a constructive, optimistic and in general positive outcome through her desire to never give up. This unwavering and unquestionable attitude to seek positivity in her life led her to becoming a children's author and creator of the character Silly Eric found in her range of books.
Work experience oppurtunities at Tingdene Broadlands Park and Marina
Tingdene Broadlands Park & Marina welcomed Zac Doggett to the park on for his school work experience week, which gave him a glimpse into a future career what it is like to be working within a holiday park operation.
Zac gained a good overall feel of life here at the park, working with the housekeeping, reception, admin and gym teams. Zac’s favorite subject at school is PE and he particularly enjoyed learning about nutrition and sports science with the personal trainers in the gym. Zac also joined the maintenance department for a couple of days, which rounded off his week at the park.
''Inspiring young individuals about future careers, goals and dreams is key to the future the leisure industry. It is an exciting career path in my opinion. You are dealing with peoples leisure time, in a pleasant environment of holiday guests and holiday home owners and in general the ethos our product is about people relaxing and making the most of life. '' Benjamin Race - Group Sales & Marketing Manager Tingdene Lifestyle
TKA Martial Arts
We helped sponsor TKA Martial Arts a new martial arts school recently set up in Norfolk.
Did you know...
The Western interest in East Asian martial arts dates back to the late 19th century, due to the increase in trade between the West with China and Japan.
Scoring for high with Mablethorpe Football team
We have also made a donation to Mablethorpe under 14’s Football Club, who finished top of their League this season – we have helped with two trophies & we were even kindly invited to present them on their presentation evening!
Empty holiday units? we give them to charity!
We have donated a short break at Broadlands Park & Marina to help raise funds for Demi Knight, to help raise money towards the treatment required for this young girls cancer treatment.
Tia Finnegan
We managed to help Tia Finnegan with a £500 donation from Tingdene Waterside Park & Hotel towards a purpose built disabled trike similar to the image above.