Library wins store’s cash prize
Fulwell Community Library has won £4,000 through the Tesco ‘Bags of Help Scheme’.
The store’s blue counters initiative uses the money paid by customers for plastic bags in store to fund local projects.
There are normally three projects funded every two months and the winner receives £4,000, the second £2,000 and the third £1,000.
Fulwell Community Library was successful against two projects from South Tyneside.
The blue counters were placed in three bins over six stores in the area including in The Bridges and Newcastle Road, and the library won convincingly.
The cheque was presented by Nigel Toase, community champion at Tesco Extra, Newcastle Road, to Coun Margaret Beck.
The money will be used to organise activities in the library for children and adults.
The latest venture is a Young Peoples Forum, which allows the children to say what they want from the library.
They have already started by organising a Halloween Party.
There are table tennis facilities and computers and the library intends to build on this by providing equipment and resources to enable them to take charge of their own course guided by volunteers from Friends of Fulwell.
Coun Beck said: ”Children today aren’t interested in the older structured youth clubs so we decided to take a different path where the children made the decisions with a little guidance.”
“They have already taken the bit between their teeth and have come up with many good ideas which probably wouldn’t have occurred to us as adults. It is their club and will do our best to help them achieve their aims.”