Garage gears up for fundraising

Last year employees at Peoples Ford, in Callendar Road, Falkirk, voted on charities they would like to raise cash for.

A Peoples Ford spokesman said: “The dealership has been here since 1998. As a business which is heavily reliant on the local community, staff and management decided they wanted to give something back to the community.

“The majority of the 60 members of staff within the dealership come from areas within the central belt, so there were many suggestions of many worthy charities that we could support.

“However, Strathcarron Hospice gained the overwhelming number of votes so from June 2015 onwards we nominated Strathcarron Hospice as our Charity of The Year.”

Representatives of Peoples Ford met up with the fundraising manager from Strathcarron Hospice and staff quickly got to work coming up with ideas and suggestions for raising some cash.

A committee was formed to organise events and get staff involved throughout the dealership.

Over the last six months events have included an all female 10-mile midnight walk, a Christmas Jumper Day, cake and candy stalls and prize raffles.

“It’s been a great way for staff throughout the dealership to work together and has undoubtedly created some healthy competition among the team. As we move into the second half of our financial year, we are planning some other exciting fundraising activities.”

The business is now ready to hand over the first total of £2000 to the hospice and staff and management are working hard to ensure it is just the tip of the fundraising iceberg for this year.

Strathcarron Hospice, located in Denny, provides specialist palliative care services and expert end of life care for the people of Forth Valley, Cumbernauld and Kilsyth and also promotes the delivery of palliative care across this area.

A registered charity, Strathcarron receives over £2 million from the NHS but still needs to raise over £10,000 every day of the year from fundraising and donations to be able to deliver its services.