Stephens and George Centenary Charitable Trust has been chosen as the final winner of St Tydfil Shopping Centre’s Community Fund for 2017 and has received £500 worth of vouchers to spend at Iceland.
The Trust was established to raise young people’s life chances in the Merthyr community by increasing social awareness, improving lifestyles, creating opportunities, growing community participation, promoting excellence and providing opportunities to develop skills.
They do this by delivering a wide range of activities which include a reading support programme, Chess in Schools initiative, a volunteer programme and creating a magazine written by young people, for young people. In addition, they organise the Spread the Word Literature Festival which takes place every year on World Book Day and sees over 2,500 school children get involved.
This year, the Trust is bringing together local support groups, vulnerable members of the community and charities to organise a Christmas party and craft fayre at the Dowlais Community Centre on Wednesday 13th December, and the vouchers will used to provide a festive buffet.
Helen Hughes, Charity Co-ordinator at Stephens and George Centenary Charitable Trust, commented:
“The Trust is growing from strength to strength and, what started as a newly registered Charity in 2012, has now developed into a robust project that puts people at the heart of everything it does.
“Our Christmas party will see a wide range of people come together, many of whom are isolated, require support, or are disadvantaged, so the event will be a great way for our community to celebrate the festive season. Everyone at the Trust would like to thank St Tydfil Shopping Centre for the donation of the vouchers, they will go a long way to helping us put on a magical party.”
Julie Calderbank, Operations Manager at St Tydfil Shopping Centre, added:
“Our St Tydfil Cares Community Fund has proven to be extremely popular and it’s clear from the nominations we’ve received that there are some fantastic organisations in Merthyr that support people in the local area.
“Stephens and George Centenary Charitable Trust is our final winner for this year and we’re delighted to be able to donate the vouchers to help them bring a wide range of people together for a Christmas celebration.”
In 2017, through the St Tydfil Cares Community Fund, the shopping centre also donated vouchers to the High Street Baptist Church to help it make essential repairs, the Fir Tree Community Association so it could organise a family fun day, and the Pontiscill Community Group enabling it to purchase books to create a reading corner.