LOVE TO SHARE: PRIMULA SURPRISES TWO MORE NORTH EAST CHARITIES WITH THOUSANDS OF POUNDS - Primula
Mar 9, 2020

LOVE TO SHARE: PRIMULA SURPRISES TWO MORE NORTH EAST CHARITIES WITH THOUSANDS OF POUNDS

Another two charities in the North East received a surprise gift today as we presented them with a combined donation of £35,000, bringing our total donation to local charities to £102,000 in the last three months.

4Louis and The Cheesy Waffles Project were both invited to our head office in Gateshead for what they thought was a pitch to colleagues to be in with a shot of securing funding later this year.

What they didn’t know is that we had voted for our winning charities last year and as there were so many, we split the surprises out between Christmas and Spring.

Sunderland-based charity 4Louis, which works across the country to support those affected by miscarriage, stillbirth and the death of a baby or child, was the first to be surprised with a donation. £20,000 was given to enable the charity to provide memory boxes up and down the country, to go towards providing specialist bereavement rooms at local hospital and to purchase specialist equipment like ‘cuddle cots’ and ‘cuddle blankets’. These are designed to allow families to spend some time with their child in a comforting environment, without the need to visit a mortuary or sit in a cold room.

The Cheesy Waffles Project was also surprised with a donation for £15,000. The project delivers clubs and activities for young people aged 7 – 35 with learning disabilities to attend in their leisure time. It encourages young people to engage in community work in a bid to raise their self-esteem and confidence while at the same time raising the profile of the young people in their community. The money received will go towards ‘The Skills House’; a project that aims to see Cheesy Waffles Project purchase a 3-bedroom property in Durham that would offer personal residential opportunities, develop one-to-one support and enhance its current ‘Skills for Life’ training.

Primula is part of the Kavli Group, which is fully owned by the charitable Kavli Trust, based in Norway. Each year all profits that aren’t reinvested into the business are donated to humanitarian, research and cultural charities and causes in the UK and around the world. To date, over £10 million has been donated to causes by the Trust, with almost £1 million of funding currently supporting projects in the North East.

Presenting the charities with cheques was Primula managing director Paul Lewney. Paul commented: “At Primula, we love to share. We work hard each year to ensure we can share our profits with local charities; it’s what drives each and every one of us here. Being able to deliver a fantastic surprise to such incredibly worthy causes really makes all of the hard work worth it.

“We collectively chose these charities knowing what a difference it will make to lives across the North East and we hope that the donations will help them to continue delivering invaluable work into the future.”

The donations follow three that were made in December at Primula’s Christmas briefing. St Bede’s Palliative Care Unit received £25,000 to fund a brand-new therapy room and redesign of the garden at its site at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Gateshead; South Street Community Primary School in Gateshead received £22,000 for a full replacement of its play area which is already being enjoyed by pupils; and Jack’s Journey received £20,000 towards the purchase of a new caravan in the North East to help it extend the services it offers to families.

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