Spreading the love
16th February 2023
Republished with permission of Essex Life.
“We love being based in Essex and giving back to the community. Essex is our home, we have never lived anywhere else.” Jason and Lisa Bartella, the owners of Pontlands Park Hotel, share their love story, what it is like to work together, and how they involve their children in giving back to Essex charities.
Love is a driving force for Jason and Lisa Bartella, in family life, their business and their connection with the community in Essex.
Born and bred in the county, the couple, who have just celebrated their 20th wedding anniversary, successfully combine working together in their family business, being the parents of three daughters and helping those less fortunate than themselves.
Jason is the Managing Director of the Heritage Leisure Group incorporating Ivy Hill Hotel in Margaretting and Pontlands Park in Great Baddow, having taken over from his father Robert when he retired some years ago. Jason and Lisa together, run Pontlands Park and as a way of giving back to the community, where their businesses are based, the family has the well-established Bartella Charitable Fund, run by the independent charitable trust, Essex Community Foundation (ECF).It means that Jason and Lisa and their three daughters Lilli, 22, Fabi, 19 and Frankie,14 can see at first-hand the impact of their Fund which gives grants to local causes, especially those providing help and support to children.
Jason said: “I think it’s important for us as a family to have a greater involvement in the community, and personal links to some of the charities we support.”
A deep-felt devotion to Essex is a pivotal part of Jason and Lisa’s life. “We love being based in Essex and giving back to the community. Essex is our home, we have never lived anywhere else.” said Lisa.
Jason was born in Brentwood and grew up in Stock. Lisa was born in Chelmsford and grew up in Great Waltham.
Lisa said: “We met when I was 17 and came to work at Pontlands, where Jason, who was 25, interviewed me. Although Jason will be the first one to admit he’s not a great romantic, we’re very fortunate that, due to hard work, we have had many great moments in life. But it’s not about what these moments are, it’s about who they were with.”
“We were married in the Lilli Suite at Pontlands in January of 2003 in an intimate ceremony followed by a cocktail party with close friends and family. Working together as a married couple has been good for us, with a relationship based on respect and trust for each other. Communication is the key.”
“We have supported each other through life’s ups and downs, putting our families and loved ones first, but never forgetting how important we are to one another.”
Jason said: “As a family and as a business we had to draw on our strengths throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. The support we gave each other was combined with the need to reassure customers and staff that there would still be a business and that everything would be okay.”
ECF has played a major role in the Bartella’s love for the county, from the time Jason and his father Robert set up the family’s charitable fund in 2004 through to Jason being a trustee for eight years and now a Vice President of the Foundation.
Jason and Lisa have made their passion for Essex and giving from the heart to good causes in the community a way of life and a truly enduring love.
“I tell everyone I can about ECF and our Fund with them because I am so passionate about it,” said Jason. “Having the Fund is such an enjoyable thing for our family. We come together to sit around the dining room table to discuss the funding applications ECF sends to us and decide which ones to support. There are so many charities that need funding, and we are grateful to be in the position to help in the small way that we can.”
For more information about how your family can set up a Fund with us, click here or call 01245 355947.
Charity begins at home
9th January 2023
Republished with permission from Essex Life.
Over 70% of land in Essex is rural and a quarter of the population lives in rural communities. The positive impact that the countryside and outdoor activities has on mental health is well documented and became more apparent during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Essex is fortunate to have many public pathways, including the well-trodden 82 miles of the Essex Way from Epping Station to Harwich Old Lighthouse, as well as 350 miles of coastline. There are also so many historic buildings and gardens that are open to the public for everyone to enjoy. But care is needed to keep these spaces and buildings preserved for future generations to enjoy, and they require funding to undertake restoration works.
At Essex Community Foundation, we manage a number of charitable funds on behalf of our donors whose interest is in the outdoors and maintaining the environment for the benefit of all. One of these is the ‘Bartleet Family Fund’ and we have been pleased to work with the fundholders since 2017 to support charitable projects and activities that meet their interests.
Ann and Anthony Bartleet were ahead of their time with their deep concerns for the natural environment and protecting our heritage for future generations. Their far-sighted interests and practical action for such causes, along with promoting musical events and activities, began several decades ago and continue to this day, through their fund with us.
Historic churches, heritage and maritime centres, outreach programmes involving young people and opera workshops are among the projects that have benefited from grants totalling more than £200,000 distributed through the Fund.
“Essex is a very much underestimated county, but we have the most splendid buildings and wonderful countryside,” said Ann. “I believe that heritage, the environment and the countryside are hugely important to people’s wellbeing, which is why we always supported such causes, even when they were not as popular as they are now.”
She and Anthony brought up their three sons in Essex and had a family trust fund for many years to make annual charitable contributions. In 2017 they made the decision to transfer the management of the fund to ECF. “This has proved to be very satisfactory, said Ann. “ECF give a very personal service, doing the groundwork and the administration for regular giving to both local and national charities. This allows me to respond to local requests for funding in the areas that I am especially interested in.
“Although the fund, quite rightly, concentrates on good causes that have direct community benefits, I like to think that by supporting environmental and cultural initiatives, I can remind everyone just how important the natural world, countryside and historic buildings and all sorts of cultural activities are to us all.”
At her home in Great Tey, Ann is surrounded by the glorious Essex countryside which she has cherished since she came from “over the border” in Hertfordshire to live in the county, at the start of her 54-year marriage to Anthony, a marine underwriter with Lloyds of London, who sadly died in 2019.
Ann says she feels fortunate that she has been able to give a lot of her time to the causes that have inspired her. More than two decades ago was made an MBE for preservation work protecting rural areas. “For many years I was lucky enough to have been able to work as a trustee of environmental charities both nationally and locally, reflecting my interest in the historic built environment and in the natural world,” she said.
“I have been a trustee of the National Trust, vice chairman of CPRE as well as chairman of the local branch here in Essex. My husband set up a building preservation trust here in north-east Essex whose mission is to repair and find new uses for historic buildings in distress.“As well as supporting national wildlife and nature conservation charities such as RSPB, Plantlife and the Woodland Trust, we have always contributed to Essex Wildlife Trust.”
Along with devotion to heritage and the countryside, Ann also has a lifelong love for music, having sung in choirs for 70 years, since she was a schoolgirl.
She said: “Music and the arts always played an important part in our lives, and we have been contributors to charities which support music in cathedrals. My husband was a trustee of a small opera company and we have been contributors to the Art Fund.”
Grants from the Bartleet Family Fund have helped to restore and repair bells and organs in several Essex churches and have also supported music festivals and choirs in the county. Being involved in so many causes and organisations has given Ann a great insight into the power of harnessing people’s interests to ensure that everyone can benefit from healthy and sustainable surroundings.
“It is amazing what communities can do – and there is always plenty to do if you look out for it,” she says. But Ann believes that the word community does not just relate to the people of the county. She feels it is also about preserving and restoring the important structures in our communities, so that people can appreciate their history and beauty now and in the future.
Although she says that advancing years mean restricting her activities to closer to home, Ann relishes her connections with the whole county. Her family fund is helping to fulfil the vision she and husband Anthony had to enhance the environment and help secure the precious heritage of Essex for future generations to enjoy.
ECF can help you to give back to your local community and to the causes you are passionate about. Call us on 01245 355947 or click here.