A DAY to raise funds and bring smiles to Stanley has been hailed a success by local businesses.
The first Stand Out for Stanley Day was held on Friday, April 30th, with local businesses, charities, schools and police dressing up and having fun to raise money for the Stanley Community Fund.
Karbon Homes, NWR Hygiene, Paccor, Harlands Acountants, Stanley Learning Partnership, Just for Women, PACT House, NE First Credit Union, Marmax Products Ltd, Building Self Belief CIO, North Durham Academy, Durham Constabulary, Willow Burn Hospice, Asda, Nationwide, Main Brothers, Annfield Plain Infants and Junior School and The Original Factory Shop Stanley all rallied to take part in the day of celebration.
All funds raised will go to the Stanley Community Fund, which has made £190,000 in local grants to date for projects in and around Stanley. In a bold, place-based giving initiative, County Durham Community Foundation, Stanley Town Council, Stanley AAP, Durham Constabulary and Kevan Jones MP, with additional support from and the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, pooled resources to create the fund two years ago.
Margaret Vaughan, Chief Operating Officer for the Foundation, said: “By working together, and by raising awareness through the Stand Out for Stanley Day, we hope to bring much-needed funding to Stanley as well as celebrating what has already been achieved. The Stanley Community Fund is about believing that communities know what is best for them and giving them the power to save and enrich lives. With support from Stanley Town Council and Stanley AAP we have managed to lever in an additional £400,000 from other funders over two years to support a wide range of charitable organisations across Stanley. We truly hope that together we can all create a community we can contribute to and be part of.”
Alison Burgess, manager of the Original Factory Shop Stanley, said: “The Stand Out for Stanley Day put a lot of smiles on faces and I hope it gets bigger and better each year. We’ve always been a company that tries to be at the heart of the community and lots of people like to pop in for a chat. To get involved in something like this is a small ask that makes a big difference. It’s nice to fundraise for our area and projects our community benefits from.”
Lois Ratcliffe, sales assistant at hardware store Main Brothers on the Front Street, said: “I just thought the day was a really good idea to get everyone in Stanley having fun and raising money for the fund. At Main Brothers our customers love that we are always up for a laugh so dressing up and doing a little collection was just part of the fun. There are some really good projects in Stanley that help people who are isolated or vulnerable and it’s a great idea to have a fund that helps these causes.”
Learn more at https://www.cdcf.org.uk/