A pub which has raised more than £30,000 for charity in just five years is dedicating its next fundraising feast in memory of one of its biggest supporters who died this year.
Jackie and Mick Bray, at Baildon's Malt Shovel, said the pub's annual game banquet, usually held at the end of the shooting season in March, will now be named in honour of Bill Wood, a civil engineer from the village who died aged 64 at Alicante airport in February as he was about to board a plane to come home.
Mr Wood, who had a heart attack, was a huge fan of the pub's game feast and regularly supplied lots of feathered fowl and poultry to the kitchen to help raise funds.
Mr Bray, who has run the Malt Shovel since 1998 with his wife, said the pub's fundraising committee would soon be getting their heads together to plan the event. "Bill was a character," Mr Bray said. "He was very well known and is sadly missed. He travelled all over the world with his job but always made sure he came in to see us when he was home. We thought he'd like the idea of us holding the feast in his memory because he always enjoyed it so much."
The first money-making venture organised by the Brays was a bed push through the village which raised £1,500 for the Baildon Action for Youth group.
Since then the pub and its regulars have helped many local causes through sponsored headshaves, selling off staff as slaves, collecting coins, running race nights and playing fancy-dress rugby, to name but a few stunts. Mr Bray said: "We couldn't do any of this without the customers. They are a brilliant bunch."
As well as supporting five local football teams, over the years the Malt Shovel has helped the Anthony Nolan Bone Marrow Trust, raised funds to buy a specialised family car for Burley-in-Wharfedale boy Matthew Downes, who suffers from a muscle-wasting disease, supported the Royal British Legion by taking part in Keighley brewer Timothy Taylor's Steve Roberts Challenge, in memory of the Shipley soldier who was the first serviceman killed in combat in the Gulf. There is also £1,000 waiting in the bank to go to Salt Grammar School to help build an all-weather pitch.
The pub's fundraising committee meets once a month to brainstorm their ideas and often gets letters from charities and groups hoping to benefit.
Peter Fitzgerald, 59, who travels from his home in Bingley to the Malt Shovel for a pint, said: "Mick and Jackie deserve a medal. This is what being a part of the community is all about."
This summer locals teamed up to do a makeover in its backyard, turning it into a Spanish-themed beer garden fondly known as Costa Del Malt Shovel.
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