Member Article

One million reasons to smile

Northumberland Wildlife Trust is today celebrating tipping over the £1 million mark, thanks to players of the UK’s largest charity lottery.

Since 2008, players of People’s Postcode Lottery have supported the work of Northumberland Wildlife Trust, and have now taken the cumulative total raised to £1,144,941.40.

Over the past 9 years, money received from players has supported a huge range of projects from repairing vandalism on a number of reserves, installing special newt fencing to prevent the protected great crested newt population going ‘walkabout’ on its Hauxley nature reserve, connecting with thousands of children and taking hundreds of school groups into the wilds of Northumberland to rehabilitating rescued otters before releasing them back into the wild and searching for the elusive dormouse in the forests of Northumberland.

A great deal of the wildlife charity’s work would not have been possible without the tireless effort of its army of volunteers, who for many years, have worked in cramped, cold conditions in a small storage area, or even worse, outside in the cold and rain.

Now, thanks to the charity lottery’s players, the Trust has been able to Install a new workshop and tool storage facility in the grounds of its St Nicholas Park - perfect for all kinds of activities such as making bird boxes to be used on all its reserves around the region, or simply repairing tools which suffer from a large amount of wear and tear throughout the year.

A small refurbishment of its head office has also been carried out including the installation of a new kitchen and meeting area for staff, volunteers and visitors - something the Trust has wanted to do for a number of years, but never had the money to do so.

Northumberland Wildlife Trust Chief Executive Mike Pratt is delighted the organisation is still a charity partner of People’s Postcode Lottery, he said: “This year, as Brexit continues to be negotiated, wildlife is set to face more challenges than ever before and certainly since the wildlife trust movement was founded over one hundred years ago - wildlife can’t stand up for itself, so if we don’t do it, who will?

“The support from players of People’s Postcode Lottery has been unstinting for almost a decade now. It has been challenging over the last few years to raise money to continue the work of the Trust and each year funding from players has come as a great boost to us. I would like to personally thank the staff and players for their support who have given each and every one of us one million reasons to smile.”

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Sue Bishop .