Charleston Place is Named 2009 Corporate Philanthropist of the Year

   

DECEMBER 29, 2009 (Charleston, South Carolina) - Charleston Place, the luxury Orient-Express Hotel in Charleston, South Carolina, has been named this year’s top corporate philanthropist by the Lowcountry Chapter of the Association of Fundraising Professionals. 

The hotel’s charitable initiatives have been highly recognized due to the leadership of Regional Managing Director, Paul Stracey and the General Manager of Charleston Grill, Mickey Bakst. Organizations that Charleston Place has supported cover cultural, educational and human needs issues, with the hotel and its employees acting as goodwill ambassadors to the community.  The most recent project is “Feed the Need”, which was originally set up in April 2009 and has so far helped approximately 14,000 people, saving food banks an estimated $42,000.

Spearheaded by Mickey Bakst, General Manager of the Charleston Grill, “Feed the Need” is a coalition of 52 restaurants, caterers and hoteliers who have rallied to help feed the hungry and assist local emergency food providers as they face budget cuts and increasing demands. The program is set to continue into 2010, with six additional companies joining the original 52 participating companies, bringing the total to 58 participating restaurants, caterers and hotels. 

“The community support over the last six months has been tremendous and Feed the Need has become a great success, which we look forward to continuing in 2010,” said founder Mickey Bakst.  “The program structure is simple and can be executed with minimal effort in any community with far-reaching results.  In addition to serving much needed meals to children and families, this program has brought our community together and introduced the next generation of food service staff to volunteerism,” added Bakst.

Charleston Place also offers charitable organizations space for events and rooms at reduced rates for their fundraising efforts, sometimes providing them at no cost. In the past, Charleston Place’s most successful events have included a fundraiser for victims of Hurricane Katrina in 2005, where $200,000 was raised in one evening.  Appalled by the devastating effect of the hurricane, the hotel staff grouped together and organized this very successful fundraising event in just seven days.

In 2007 after a fire in a store in Charleston, which took the lives of nine fire fighters, the hotel hosted an event called “Dine for the Nine”, where $500,000 was raised for the fire fighters’ families. With the co-ordination and spirit of the hotel staff and local residents, they proved resilient yet again in the face of tragedy.

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Orient-Express Hotels (www.orient-express.com) has offered exceptional luxury travel experiences since 1976, when the company first purchased Hotel Cipriani in Venice and then shortly afterwards, recreated the celebrated Venice Simplon-Orient-Express, which weekly, links London, Paris and Venice as well as other destinations.  Today, the company owns or part-owns and manages 49 businesses, 39 of which are highly acclaimed hotels that are each unique in style, from the Mount Nelson in Cape Town and Rio’s Copacabana Palace, to the Grand Hotel Europe in St. Petersburg and Maroma Resort & Spa on Mexico’s Riviera Maya.  There are two restaurants, including ‘21’ in New York, two river cruise operations and six tourist trains.  Orient-Express prides itself on providing the ultimate in luxury and service for its guests, in some of the world’s most magical locations.

Media Contact:

Kara Hoffman | The Brandman Agency | 212.683.2442 | Kara@brandmanpr.com