Community chest is open

Nominations welcomed

COMMUNITY groups are being encouraged to sign up for a chance to win a grant of up to £500 every three months from a town supermarket.

Asda on Barwell Lane runs a community donation scheme which sees three good causes benefit from financial gifts every quarter.

Nominations are invited from community groups or people benefiting from the work they do

Staff vote for three causes to be supported for three months each from January, April, July and October.

Perspex towers labelled with each group’s name and information about its work are set up in store and shoppers can request tokens at the tills to add to the tower for the cause of their choosing.

Children are given three tokens at a time, for a chance to spread their support. At the end of each quarter, the tokens are weighed and the group with the most is given £500.

The other receive £200.

Causes currently being supported are Hinckley Homeless Group, which runs Lawrence House hostel for homeless young people, Castlemead Hospital Radio and Hearing Dogs for Deaf People.

Asda community champion Marie Eaves, who coordinates the scheme said: “We try to choose causes that are local to Hinckley or the surrounding villages.

“If there are local branches of national charities who fund projects around Hinckley, we consider those too, but we don’t just give money to national charities.

“We like to see the money used for something like equipment or two each specific projects.”

She said the aim was to help groups who are supporting the community, many through the work of dedicated volunteers, and many of which receive no formal funding.

Groups may apply more than once to be considered if they have several different needs or projects to be funded.

Staff voting for the AprilJune quarter will be carried out in the next few weeks so there is still time for nominations to be made for that quarter’s fundraising.

Nominations can be made on the Asda website or by filling out a nomination card from the community board in the Barwell Lane store.

You can also nominate a cause by writing to community champion Marie Eaves at the store either by letter or by email to Community_hinckley@asda. co.uk