Deadline looms for our £20,000 giveaway
Charities and community groups wanting to take part in our £20,000 Cash For Your Community giveaway have until next week to get their applications in.
Once more the Shropshire Star is joining forces with our partners at Enterprise Flex-e-Rent to hand hand out cash donations of up to £5,000 to good causes in Shropshire and Mid Wales.
Charities, community groups and voluntary organisations have until midday on Monday to submit their applications for this year's campaign.
Online applications can still be made on our specially dedicated website community.shropshirestar.com/
Since its launch in 2015, Cash For Your Community has handed over 180 cheques to 139 different groups, totalling £80,000.
This year we are looking to help 35 groups. We are inviting charities, voluntary organisations and not-for-profit community enterprises to apply for a share of the money.
Once the groups have been chosen, our readers will decide how the money is shared out by collecting tokens that are printed in the Shropshire Star.
The money will be shared between each group depending on how many tokens they have managed to collect.
As well as the £5,000 top prize, we are also giving away £2,000 to the organisation which collects the second largest number of tokens, and £1,000 to the group in third place.
Last year's biggest recipient was Shropshire and Staffordshire Blood Bikes, which used its £5,000 windfall to improve its service transporting essential medical supplies around the county.
Fundraising manager Lynne Stone said: “We help the NHS save lives, money and improve the quality of life of poorly patients. We deliver urgent medical samples such as blood, platelets, and frozen breast milk free of charge between hospitals and pathology labs on motorbikes ridden by our advanced qualified riders and managed by our controllers.
"Our substantial win enabled us to purchase and install a new secure motorbike shed in North Shropshire which meant that the many of our 100 per cent volunteer bikers in the area had ready access to a liveried blood bike and could speedily serve the operational needs of our local Shropshire hospitals and beyond."
The previous year, £5,000 went to The Movement Centre, based at the Robert Jones and Agnes Hunt Orthopaedic Hospital in Gobowen, near Oswestry. The charity used the money to buy a machine known as ‘the magic carpet’, which helps children with conditions such as cerebral palsy improve their ability to move about, and in some cases help them to walk.
Shropshire Star editor Martin Wright said it was a privilege to once more be able to support so many good causes across the county.
"It has been wonderful to be able to help so many wonderful groups and charities make such a difference to our area," he said.
"If your group could use a slice of the Cash For Your Community prize fund to help others, please be sure to get your application in by Monday."
Tom McDonald of Enterprise Flex-E-Rent said he was delighted to be working with the Shropshire Star once more. He said the good work of local groups was “awe inspiring”.
“We at Enterprise pride ourselves on our founding values, working to strengthen our bonds with the communities our customers and colleagues live and work in.
“As a proud Shropshire resident, we are delighted to again be supporting fantastic charities and community groups throughout the region as part of the Cash For Your Community campaign.”
