BT volunteers win £1200 for two Cardiff projects
BT has rewarded the Holy Family Friends and Cardiff Rivers Group with a combined grant totalling £1200 for the work they do with the local community.
The grants have been awarded through the company’s employee recognition scheme, the BT People Awards. The scheme recognises and rewards BT’s volunteering heroes, who offer their time and skills to help people in their local communities, by providing grants to organisations in which they are involved.
Holy Family Friends beat off national competition to win the Improving Education category of the awards and a £700 grant for the contribution it makes to the local community while the Cardiff Rivers Group were recognised under the Environmental Sustainability category with a grant of £500.
Holy Family Friends was set up by local parents with the encouragement of parent involvement from the teachers in Holy Family Primary School. The group work with parents to encourage numeracy and literacy among children.
BT Service Resilience and Revenue Assurance Advisor, Julie Feehan volunteers for the Holy Family Friends and nominated them for the BT People Award. She said: “I first started with Holy Family Friends in 2005 when my son started school here. In 2007 I became a school governor and also part of the parents supporting the school with fundraising events.”
“ I have ran groups with mums and their children on numeracy and literacy classes. This has encouraged young mums to help their children which boosts their confidence and leads to better results for the children. Also being a digital leader, I enjoy teaching adults and children about the internet.”
“ I love doing what I do and this grant will help the group buy more ‘tools for the job’. We’ve just purchased a computer with this grant and will now look at getting more pens, papers and books for the children as well.”
The Cardiff Rivers Group were nominated by BT Cardiff data Centre employee Hugh Kettle. The Group help keep Cardiff rivers clean by regularly arranging clean up events that have resulted in cars, motorbikes, mattresses, car tyres, traffic cones and tonnes of plastic being removed. As a result of their work a visible improvement in the cleanliness of the River Taff has been seen as it is now considered one of the cleanest urban rivers in Britain.
Ann Beynon, BT’s director for Wales, said: “The People Awards acknowledges the time and commitment that BT people across Wales are giving to the local community groups for which they volunteer.”
Four hundred and fifty one applications were received for this round of grants and 84 applicants received awards totalling £50,980.
Applications were submitted by BT people from all over the world including Peru, India and Belgium. These included a wide range of community organisations from football clubs to police cadets to red squirrel protection, illustrating the wide variety of activities in which BT people are involved.
For more information and to see a complete list of the latest award recipients please visit: www.btpeopleawards.co.uk or see what BT can do to help charities by visiting: www.bt.com/charityportfolio.
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For further information please contact the BT People Awards Press Office on 0845 257 6792 or the regional BT regional press office on 0800 085 0660.
The winners in Wales are:
• Gorseinon Cricket Club, Swansea, SA4 4AD £500
• Usk Conservation and Environmental Group, Abergavenny NP7 9LE £230
• Cardiff Rivers Group, CF11 9HB £500
• Holy Family R C Primary School, Cardiff CF5 3SN £700
