Lottery celebrates fantastic first year

Good causes in Charnwood have come together to celebrate the Charnwood Community Lottery’s first birthday.

Charnwood Borough Council held the celebration event at Fearon Hall, one of the 50 organisations registered for the lottery.

Since launching last year lottery players have raised over £22,000 for a variety of good causes including village halls, community libraries, swimming clubs, play groups, scout groups, and various charities.

Over 37,000 tickets have been sold in the first year, 92 players have won cash prizes and 730 people have won 3 free tickets.

Cllr Deborah Taylor, lead member for communities said: “I’d like to thank everyone who has brought tickets and supported good causes through the lottery over the past 12 months.

“The lottery was launched to help raise money for good causes in the borough which is exactly what it’s done.

“We’ve also had a number of players who have won a variety of cash prizes over the past year, so I’d like to congratulate them and thank everyone who has supported the lottery. I’m looking forward to seeing more groups and organisations signing up to the lottery and more money being raised over the next year.”

For every £1 ticket purchased, 60p goes towards helping good causes in the borough.

When a player chooses to support one of the registered good causes, the organisation will receive a 50p donation, with 10p going towards a central community fund. If no charity is chosen, all 60 pence goes to the community fund. The council will use the community fund to continue to support local projects and good causes through its grants scheme.

The top prize in the Charnwood Community Lottery is £25,000.

Among the many groups to have benefitted from the lottery is the Quorn Local History Group which has received over £450.

Dennis Marchant from the group said: “We’d like to thank every player which chooses to support the history group with their lottery ticket.

“The lottery is great for those groups which may just a little additional funding and I’d encourage any other community groups in Charnwood to looking at registering as a good cause.

“The money raised through the lottery has been put towards the general running costs of the group and has also helped us to fund equipment such as a projector.”

To play the Charnwood Community Lottery or to find out more about being one of the good causes, please visit www.charnwoodlottery.co.uk