UPDATE: Hostages were released from Island via powerboat at 4.45pm on Friday 28th May. After they negotiated £3,500 raised from pledges from company suppliers family and friends. English Lakes Hotels will match that figure to give a grand total of £7,000 to Open Arms International.
Directors of English Lakes Hotels are to be kidnapped immediately after a board meeting and held for ransom on an island in Windermere.
Bosses at English Lakes Hotels will be snatched after their meeting at the four-star Storrs Hall Hotel during the afternoon of Friday, May 28, by a team of insurgent staff members dressed in black. The directors, who are completely unaware of the plans, will be surrounded by masked abductors and bundled into a waiting boat moored at the hotel’s jetty, and marooned on nearby Ramp Holme island.
The only way the hostages can secure their release is by using mobile phones to convince friends and business contacts to donate money to English Lakes Hotels’ chosen charity – Open Arms International.
In exchange for securing donations the directors will be able to negotiate with their kidnappers for materials which can be used to build a raft. The greater the pledges, the more resources they will receive, increasing their chances of staying dry!
“They would normally enjoy a three-course meal at the end of the board meeting,” said Tina Taylor, manager of English Lakes Hotels’ Plus One staff scheme, and co-ordinator of the abduction plot. “Instead, they will be eating a packed lunch on the island, whilst they negotiate their release.
“They are going to have to negotiate themselves off the island by raising donations for the Open Arms International charity. So £200 may get them the first part of their raft. They will have to negotiate very hard for all the bits of the raft to get back to the mainland. However, if they are successful in raising a massive amount for the charity we may allow them to return in style by speedboat.”
Although Mrs Taylor has every faith in the director’s ability to raise a large amount – she warns that if they do not then they could be stuck on Ramp Holme overnight.
“We are anticipating that they will be able to get off the island before nightfall by getting lots of donations from their contacts – however, we are not guaranteeing it,” she said.
Directors targeted for abduction will be: Simon Berry, Chairman and Managing Director; Tim Berry, Buildings Director; David Neale, Commercial Director and Douglas Dale, Operations Director.
The captives will be allowed to have a colleague on the mainland to negotiate on their behalf – this will be the Finance Director Michael Doyle.
Mrs Taylor, who has been granted approval for the plot by the directors’ wives, said she expected them to react to their kidnapping with good humour.
“I think that they will fully enter into the spirit of the challenge and I’m fully confident that they can raise a lot of money for the charity,” she said.
You can keep up to date with how the English Lakes Hotels’ directors are getting on by following @lakeshotels on Twitter.
Money raised by the kidnap plot will go towards English Lakes Hotel’s target to raise £45,000 for Open Arms International by the end of October this year. The group’s employees have already managed to raise £17,500 for the cause so far.
Open Arms International is a humanitarian organisation dedicated to providing relief to orphans and destitute families in Kenya.
Open Arms International owns a village in Kenya, where they look after 28 children and 3 babies. The charity has already built a number of orphan homes and wants to build an additional 8 homes, a school, a medical centre, guest homes and a restaurant.
For more information about out work with Open Arms International visit the Corporate Social Responsibility Section.
