Group awarded cash for wildlife pond project
A Bathgate charity that is helping to improve the environment is celebrating a cash windfall.
The Breechbrae group has received £3000 in funding to improve its wild pond thanks to the Tesco Bags for Life initiative.
Representatives from the group joined MSPs, Tesco colleagues and representatives from Greenspace Scotland at a celebration event at the Scottish Parliament recently.
The event was organised to mark the success of the supermarket’s flagship community grant scheme, which has been helping charities and community groups around the country.
The initiative sees grants raised from the sale of carrier bags awarded to thousands of local community projects every year.
Tony McElroy, Tesco’s head of communications in Scotland, said:“To have awarded this amount of money to thousands of groups all over the UK is a fantastic achievement – and it’s all down to our customers.
“Bags of Help continues to be a great success and we wanted to get some of our funding recipients involved in helping us celebrate. Each of the groups has a big part to play in their communities and it’s important that we brought everyone together to recognise that.
“It’s a real privilege to see community projects thriving thanks to the funding.”
At the event, the groups – who are all Bags of Help funding recipients – got the chance to meet their local MPs and MSPs and to hear how the funding has impacted upon recipients all over the country.
Tesco customers get the chance to vote for three different groups each time they shop. Every other month, when votes are collected, three groups in each of Tesco’s regions are awarded funding.
Emma Halliday, community enabler coordinator at greenspace scotland, added:“Bags of Help is breathing life into community projects all over Scotland. Working on the frontline of these projects, alongside Tesco, we see projects going from an idea, right through to completion. The funding is having a real impact on communities and this event will raise awareness of that.”
Bags of Help funding is available to community groups and charities looking to fund local projects that bring benefits to communities. Anyone can nominate a project and apply online. To find out more visit www.tesco.com/bagsofhelp