Two sister restaurants have donated more than $3,000 to two children’s charities.

Rosa’s Cantina and Chopsticks, both in Hamilton, created a special Christmas cocktail to raise funds for Big Brothers Big Sisters Bermuda and the Foster Parent Association.

Melonie Dill, vice-president of the Foster Parent Association, said the response to the fundraiser was “amazing”.

“We thank the community for their continued support,” she added. She said the charity would use the funds to support foster parents and foster children.

Ms Dill added: “We had a young man who needed a new wheelchair so we purchased him a new wheelchair.

“We have requests for school laptops, camps, school trips that maybe the foster parents can’t afford to send the children on. So pretty much any way that we can support.

“Sometimes we have new foster children come in and we provide help to the foster parents to get them started, to get them some clothes, some formula, some of the essentials that they might need and anything that may come up that isn’t covered through the Government.”

Michael Wellman, vice-president of Big Brothers Big Sisters, accepted the cheque on behalf of BBBS.

Lindsay Durham, director of operations at both restaurants, explained: “Whatever money we raised from selling the drink, we split it between the two charities and those are two charities that do a lot for children.

She added: “None of this would ever be possible if Gosling’s didn’t step in like they always do to help us to raise the funds.

“They give us all the alcohol for free, which is why we are able to give 100 per cent of the profit to the charities every time we do it.”

Patrina O’Connor-Paynter, managing director of Big Brothers Big Sisters of Bermuda, said: “Big Brothers Big Sisters of Bermuda is very grateful for this donation which will help to support our core mentoring programme.

“We appreciate Rosa’s and Chopsticks investment in the youth of Bermuda. We would also like to thank everyone that supported this initiative.”

Ms Durham said the fundraiser tied in with the restaurants’s drive to collect Christmas presents for children in foster care and with BBBS and its Winter Wonderland family event in December.

The event was held in December at the Bermuda National Sports Centre and Ms Lindsay said more than 1,000 children attended.

She also thanked Bruce Tucker and Stacey Deshield for their donation to the event, as well as insurance firm MS Amlin for its support.