Eight charities and community groups are sharing £6,500 from Bath Building Society’s annual charity awards scheme.
The awards were established in 2006 to support as many initiatives in the Bath area as possible from the growing number of requests that the society receives each week asking for support.
This year’s beneficiaries include The Bath Shed, a group of older men and women who meet to make new friends and learn new practical skills, which has received £1,500.
Three Ways School in Odd Down, Share & Repair, pictured, which helps people save money and the planet through reduce, repair and reuse, and Reason, which gives support and help to reduce harm from problematic behaviours, particularly in the area of alcohol, gambling and drugs, have each received £1,000.
Meanwhile, £500 each has gone to Bath in Bloom, children’s music charity Voices for Life, Peter Pan pre-school and The Willow Tree Centre, which helps and supports people with learning difficulties who find themselves facing an unplanned pregnancy or experiencing a baby loss.
Bath Building Society chief executive Kevin Gray said: “The awards are very important to us and are a way for the society to ‘give something back’ to the local community.
“It is amazing the work some of these organisations do and the local people that they help and on such little funding, I’m just glad we can help!
“I am really pleased how the number of applications continues to increase year on year.
“It was a tough competition, but we found our winners in the end.”
The judging panel included Rotary Club of Bath treasurer Alan Keeling, Quartet Community Foundation philanthropy manager for Bath & North East Somerset Angela Emms and Tiffany Hardie-Albutt and Layla Jones from Bath Building Society.
The society, which was established in 1904 to offer savings and mortgages to the local community, today has more than 20,000 savers and 1,200 mortgage customers.
It employs more than 60 staff in its Queen Square head office and two branches in the city. It also has a presence in a number of agency offices across the West of England.
