CHARITIES BENEFIT FROM HELPING HEARTS

Charities in Rugby have been awarded a share of £2,470 from the Heart of England Co-operative Society’s Helping Hearts Awards scheme.

The cash will be used to help make a difference to the lives of hundreds of people including schoolchildren, soldiers and youngsters in Chernobyl.

Helping Hearts was set up in 2000. Recently, the Heart of England Co-operative Society celebrated a landmark £500,000 in pledges to charities and worthy causes throughout the trading area.

Among those to have benefited were the Rugby Sea Cadets which received £500 towards protection covers for boats and the Chernobyl Children’s Project which received £250 towards bringing a child from Chernobyl to Warwickshire for a month in the summer.

St Matthew’s and St Oswald’s Church in New Bilton received £100 worth of goods towards a Christmas fayre while the Webb Ellis 41 Club Ex Round Tablers received £50 of gift vouchers  towards a fundraising event in aid of Warwickshire Wildlife Trust and Help the Heroes.

Jo Dyke, Community and Membership Adviser at the Heart of England Co-operative Society, said: “Once again our Helping Hearts Award scheme has received requests from a wide range of groups which is great as it means our tobacco profits are reaching thousands of people from all walks of life across our trading area and they are helping some of the most deserving causes.

“This is exactly why we set up the Helping Hearts Award scheme. As the largest independent community retailer in this region we feel it is only right that residents within our trading area reap the benefits of our profits and that the money goes to help some of the most needy people across Coventry, Warwickshire, south Leicestershire and Northamptonshire.”