The Barnard family of Saint Lucia has donated £100,000 to match the donations already raised by past guests and supporters in the fundraising initiative launched to support SunSwept Resorts’ team members during the turmoil of the Covid-19 outbreak. The personal donation by the entire family, generations of which have lived in Saint Lucia for over 200 years, accompanies the efforts already being undertaken by SunSwept Resorts to support its team members and the future of tourism on the island.

The donation will be evenly distributed across all 575 team members of SunSwept Resorts’ BodyHoliday and Rendezvous resorts who, due to the current pandemic, have been furloughed until the resorts reopen. Separate to other financial contributions being made, the £100,000 contribution aims to support the valued team during this difficult time.

Having closed its BodyHoliday and Rendezvous resorts in late March, due to the coronavirus pandemic, SunSwept Resorts launched a GoFundMe initiative to support staff. The fundraising campaign was inspired by the generous guests who had reached out to help the teams that have looked after them over the years.

With the GoFundMe campaigns for BodyHoliday and Rendezvous staff totaling just over £100,000 at the time of the donation, this doubles the amount raised so far.

The GoFundMe campaign is being kept active until the end of April to ensure the amount raised is as high as possible and team members are set to receive a significant boost to family incomes by the end of the GoFundMe campaign in mid May.

Craig Barnard, Managing Director and founder of BodyHoliday and Rendezvous resorts, said: “We understand that this is a very difficult time for everyone and is an unprecedented situation for any of us to be in.

Our team members are part of our family and we want to do as much as we can to help support them through this time of uncertainty.

We have been overwhelmed by the generosity from our past guests in our fundraiser and would like to express our heartfelt gratitude for this support.

When we saw the astounding generosity of our guests it was only right that we matched the amount that they had contributed to the fund in the hope that we can all achieve the final goal that we set for the fund at the outset. The fund will go a long way to helping the families in need during this crisis and we look forward to welcoming our Team Members back to BodyHoliday and Rendezvous”.