Hospice’s vantastic help from Arrow Self Drive

THE HUDDERSFIELD branch of The Leeds Building Society has helped raise £780 for Variety, the Children’s Charity by selling Smurfs gold heart pin badges.

The Smurfs theme was chosen to coincide with the release of the film ‘Smurfs: The Lost Village’ in cinemas last month.

Denise Watson, Leeds Building Society’s Huddersfield branch manager, said: “Our team in Market Street, Huddersfield, offered the ‘Smurfette’ and ‘Papa Smurf’ gold heart badges throughout April.

“I am pleased the campaign caught the imagination of our colleagues and customers.”

Colleen Ettridge, head of Fundraising at Variety, the Children’s Charity, said: “These vital funds raised by Leeds Building Society’s colleagues and members will bring a little sunshine into the lives of children helped by Variety.”

Since 1991, Variety’s Gold Heart Appeal has been the charity’s signature campaign in the UK and has raised millions to help improve the lives of children and young people in the UK. HUDDERSFIELD’S hospice for children has benefitted from three new delivery vans.

Forget Me Not Children’s Hospice has accepted delivery of three new vehicles from Arrow Self Drive.

The family-run business began supporting Forget Me Not three years ago, originally sponsoring one small van, but recently it has increased its level of support to include three vehicles.

The finishing touches were added by Bradford sign-writing company, Leading Edge Signage and Graphics, which supplied the eye-catching vehicle wraps for the vans.

The vans, dubbed Pip, Patrick and Percy, began collecting and delivering furniture at the end of last month for distribution at Forget Me Not’s nine charity shops.

Gareth Pierce, head of retail at Forget Me Not, said: “We’re thrilled with the new vans. We are now selling second hand furniture in some of our charity shops and we need these larger vans to deliver large pieces of furniture.

“We’ll also be using them for collections and house clearances, where people kindly donate furniture to be sold in the shops.

“Not only that, but the newly designed graphics look great and really help raise awareness of Forget Me Not on the road wherever they go! These vehicles have arrived just in time for the opening of our new Superstore on Manchester Road in Huddersfield, which opened last month.”

Arrow Self Drive’s managing director, James Hill, added: “We’re pleased to be able to provide the charity with transportation and hope they find our support useful in delivering their muchneeded services to the community. We hope to be able to continue working in partnership with the charity long into the future. ”

The hospice is also running a competition in conjunction with their new vehicles, whereby the public is encouraged to take a photo and post it social media if they spot the vans on the roads around Huddersfield, Halifax, Wakefield or Bradford.

The winner will be selected by the hospice in July and the prize will be a family ticket to Forget Me Not’s Lantern Trail in October 2017.