Dozens of charities across Huddersfield and Calderdale are bidding for funds under a scheme run by Yorkshire Building Society.
The society, which has its roots in Huddersfield, is putting £9,000 donated by members up for grabs for three local charities.
Staff at nine branches in the area are inviting people to call in and vote for their favourite to decide how the money will be divided. Each branch has three charities to choose from – and whichever get the most votes in the branch will get the biggest share of £1,000.
The charitable campaign gets under way tomorrow and runs for two weeks. The number of votes received for each charity by Friday, February 27, will determine the amount of money each receives. The charity with the most votes will receive £500, with the second-placed charity getting £300 and the charity in third place getting £200.
The campaign is being supported by Yorkshire Building Society Charitable Foundation, which is funded by the Yorkshire’s Small Change Big Difference community scheme. The cash is raised by more than 860,000 members of the Bradford-based society donating the pennies from the interest they receive on their accounts, just once a year.
Society area manager Andrew Kerry said: “We know how important our chosen charities are to our local community so we’re delighted to be making a donation to help them continue their important work – just how much they receive though will be up to our customers and members of the public. In this campaign, votes equal pounds so we hope as many people as possible will take a minute to pop in and make their vote count.”
The branches taking part are Brighouse, Holmfirth, Honley, Huddersfield New Street, Huddersfield Waterloo, Lindley, Meltham, Mirfield, and Slaithwaite.
Their chosen charities are: Brighouse – Support and Care After Road Death and Injury, The Faye Knowles Foundation and National Children’s Centre; Holmfirth – Bridgewood Trust Ltd, Demand Design and Manufacture For Disability and Friend To Friend; Honley – Kingdom Living, Honley and District Aid in Sickness Fund and Castle Hill Special School Fund.
Huddersfield New Street – Huddersfield and District Army Veterans’ Association, Huddersfield Mission and Huddersfield Downs Syndrome Support Group; Huddersfield Waterloo – The Laura Crane Youth Cancer Trust, The Alzheimer’s Society (Huddersfield) and Home Start Dalton; Lindley – SANDS, Tia Greyhound and Lurcher Rescue, and Mencap.
Meltham - Making Space, The Leanne Baker Trust and The Crossroads Project; Mirfield - Mirfield Community Centre, Northorpe Hall Child and Family Trust and The Canal and River Trust; Slaithwaite - Holme Valley Mountain Rescue Team, Huddersfield Cancer Support and PDSA.
In total £35,000 will be shared between 105 charities throughout Yorkshire during Yorkshire Building Society’s 2015 Charity Choices campaign. In 2014, the charitable foundation made 2,189 donations to good causes and charities in the UK totalling £464,000.
