Sainsbury’s in Newport have this week announced that the Isle of Wight Society For The Blind will receive a year’s worth of fundraising and awareness support from the supermarket.
The Isle of Wight Society For The Blind – who offer support, information and activities to help visually impaired people and their families – will be the new Local Charity for the Sainsbury’s store.
To celebrate the announcement, a launch day was held on Thursday when representatives from Isle of Wight Society For The Blind were on hand to greet customers throughout the day. The store team will also be fundraising for the new charity by holding a Dress Up Days, Bag Packing, monetary collections and awareness days, offering support for recreational activities, volunteering colleague support on annual fair Days for the Society For The Blind,
The retailer’s Local Charity scheme is now in its sixth year and gives customers the chance to vote for their favourite local charity to be considered to receive a year’s worth of support from their Sainsbury’s store. The scheme has raised over £6 million to support local charities since 2009.
The Newport store situated in Foxes Road has had great success in supporting previous local charities and last year raised £2,534.00 for YMCA The YMCA will be using the money to support Young Carers Days out and Activities
Customers had a huge say in this year’s announcement and voted in-store and online between 28th May and 8th June. The store colleagues then decided that Isle of Wight Society For The Blind were the best charity for them to work with to make a real difference.
When the charity were announced as Sainsbury’s Newport Isle of Wight’s new Local Charity partner for 2013/2014, Simon Samuels from the Isle of Wight Society for the Blind said that he couldn’t wait to get started:
“For a big retailer like Sainsbury’s to confirm a year’s partnership with us was just incredible news.
Article continues below this advertisement “I remember getting the phone-call and having a big grin on my face! We had our first meeting shortly after and we worked up some great ideas that we hoped would create great feedback with the store’s customers and colleagues.
“We know the success that the Local Charity partnership has bought to many charities in the Isle of Wight area so when we received the news, we were thrilled. We hope the partnership will help raise awareness of our cause to the store’s customers and will help us develop the important service we provide to the community”.
Sainsbury’s Store Manager, Paul Dyer said:
“We’ve had a great response from our customers this year, both through in-store and online votes. We’re delighted to have chosen a charity which touched many of our colleagues’ hearts. We will now be working closely with the charity to ensure they really benefit from being our Local Charity for the next 12 months”.
