We’re pleased to welcome The Vault, Hey Smile Foundation’s library of charity equipment, to the ground floor of Umber Towers.
The Vault loans free equipment to local charities to help them raise and save money, and officially moved into its new home at our St Marks Square office in February 2023. The new space offers The Vault 980 square feet to store everything from giant jenga to computer equipment.
We’ve offered The Vault, as well as Hessle Theatre Company, storage space at a reduced rate, as part of our continued commitment to supporting HEY Smile Foundation and the wider local charity community.
The Vault now has over four times the space to store and grow its collection of equipment, as well as a lobby area for caretaker, Keith Parker, to welcome visitors. Keith is also particularly excited to now have his own tea-making facilities too!
Keith said:
“Being able to move The Vault is brilliant for me and the charity. I will get a little lobby, with my own tea-making facilities and we will have lots more room, which we desperately need.
“I love The Vault, it really helps charities put on events that they wouldn’t otherwise be able to and I really enjoy meeting people and hearing about how their events went.”
Kevin Wilkie, our Creative Director said:
“We’re really excited to see the ground floor of Umber Towers in use and benefiting local charities. When we purchased our building in 2016, we decided to renovate the upstairs level into our offices, leaving the ground floor available for future ventures.
“We’re a HEY Smile Foundation corporate partner and have worked closely with the team on several projects over the years. One of those was a website for The Vaults, which is when we discovered they were desperate for more space. We thought it made perfect sense for them to move in, so we made it happen!”
Balfour Beatty helped to decorate and fit out the ground floor space, including installing racking to keep everything organised and helped to move the equipment across.
Gareth Meyrick, HEY Smile Foundation’s Community Producer, said:
“We are really pleased that Keith and the Vault have a new home and we are really grateful to Umber Creative for making this space available and to Balfours for making the move easy. The Vault is at capacity and this is a bigger space.
“This equipment is extremely important to the charities that use it. It saves charities from spending money on hire costs and it helps them put on events and raise money that they can use for the greater good. You cannot underestimate the financial benefit the Vault brings to charities. Last year we managed 386 orders and we hired 4,568 items. This year we will do everything we can to help charities that we know are struggling more than ever because of the Cost of Living Crisis.”
