Registered Charity
Number 1014851
Clydesdale Bank are delighted that their Charity Partner for 2009 will continue
to be Help the Hospices.
Help the Hospices is a national charity supporting over 200 local hospices
across the UK with national fundraising initiatives, provision of grants,
funding, training, information, support and advocacy for hospices. As a
membership organisation for hospices, Help the Hospices provides a voice to
these local charities which enrich the lives of over 250,000 terminally ill
patients annually. Supporting this worthwhile cause will give our employees an
opportunity to support both a national and a local charity.
Check back here for more information about activity happening throughout season
2009/10.
Clydesdale Bank Premier League trophy visits local school
Real Radio and CHAS
Children at St Margaret’s School in Polmont got their hands on the Clydesdale
Bank trophy last week, thanks to local resident Gordon Meikle and his winning
charity bid.
We had offered the trophy as an auction prize for Real Radio’s Bring a £ To Work
Day, to help raise funds for CHAS, the Children’s Hospice. The prize ran on Ewen
and Roughy’s Football Phone In show, and Gordon was the highest bidder, offering
£500 for the trophy to spend a day at a school of his choice.
Clydesdale Bank’s charity partner is Help the Hospices, of which CHAS is a part,
so we were more than happy to offer up a prize that could help Real Radio raise
funds for this worthy cause.
Gordon chose St Margaret’s School in Polmont for the trophy. Explaining his
choice he said: “As a football fan, I know that kids would love to see something
like the SPL trophy up close, and when I heard that a great charity would
benefit, it was an easy decision to bid. Both my children went to St Margaret’s
School, and it’s close to my home. One of my daughters is training to be a
teacher and she has worked in the school, so it was a perfect choice.”
Over the course of the day all the classes were invited to the school gym to
have their photo taken with the trophy, giving them the chance to feel like
champions themselves. The school had organised an additional fundraiser for
CHAS. Acting Headteacher at the school, Ann Mcfarlane said: “We were delighted
when Gordon told us that he’d nominated our school to have the SPL trophy for a
day. The kids were so excited to get close to something they see their football
heroes with on television, one primary three child even told me that he would
never wash his hands again! We had already decided that the collection at our
Easter Service would go to CHAS, and the children have all made a donation to
the charity to have their photo taken with the trophy, so it’s nice that the
school is also able to give something to the same charity.”
As an added treat for a couple of classes, we arranged for a player from the
local SPL team to visit the school to take part in a Q&A session with some of
the kids. Falkirk goalie Josh Wagenaar stopped by and did a great job of
answering the kids questions which ranged from “who is the best player in your
team?”, “what subjects did you take at school?”, and “what age did you start
playing football?”, to some trickier questions like “what do you think is wrong
with Falkirk this year?” and “how much do you earn?” !
Real Radio Football Phone-In host Ewen Cameron also came by to see how things
were going. He said: “This year’s ‘Bring a pound to work day,’ was our most
successful yet and this is down to, not only the amazing generosity of our
listeners, who have really taken the charity into their hearts, but companies
like the Clydesdale Bank, who offer such fantastic prizes like this. Without
them we wouldn’t be able to hold such successful auctions, that really get our
listeners excited and bidding huge amounts of money for such a worthwhile
cause.”
8th April 2010