News

Hundreds of pounds raised for local charity from Strabane BID Christmas Card competition

21 February 2024

Hundreds of pounds were raised for a local charity from the recent Christmas Card competition hosted by Strabane BID.

An impressive £674 was raised from Christmas card sales with all proceeds going to the Grass Roots Café and Food Market, run by Strabane Community Project.

The competition took place in November and December 2023. Local school children took part by entering their own designs and ideas for a Christmas card that would be printed and produced into a Christmas card which would then be sold in local retailers around the town, with all proceeds going to Grass Roots Café and Food Market.

The Primary School competition was won by Leilani Cawley from Sion Mills Primary School, while Alex Kerlin from Holy Cross College won the Secondary School competition. The winning designs were printed and sold in a number of town centre outlets including The Alley Theatre, Houston Homewares, Caffe Milano, Bejeweled at Soul and the Grass Roots Café. 

Mayor of Derry City and Strabane District Council, Cllr Patricia Logue, congratulated the winners and said a huge well done to everyone involved.

“What a fantastic outcome from such a lovely festive competition. I would like to say a huge well done to everyone involved, from the school pupils who submitted their designs to the team at Strabane BID for putting everything together, and most importantly the public who got involved and purchased the Christmas cards, raising remarkable funds for a local charity. This money will be much appreciated and will go towards helping the local community.”

Chair of Strabane BID, Kieran Kennedy, said thank you to everyone who bought the Christmas cards and donated to the cause.

“This competition and fundraising opportunity could not have happened if the local people of Strabane didn’t get involved, so we would like to say a huge thank you to everyone who purchased one of the Christmas Cards and helped to generate this brilliant subtotal. These funds are much needed, and we are delighted to help such an amazing, local charity, right on our doorstep. We would also like to say a huge thank you and well done to all the school pupils who entered and took part in the competition, there were some fantastic entries!”

Strabane Community Project Manager, Ursula Doherty, said “The directors, management, staff & volunteers of Strabane Community Project would like to say a massive thank you to Strabane BID for nominating the Grass Roots Café and Food market as recipients of donations from the Christmas card campaign. We also would like to thank all the businesses that stocked the Christmas cards and to the public who purchased cards and by doing so have greatly supported their Community at a time of high cost of living.

The Grass Roots Café and Food Market is run by the Strabane Community Project and has now developed into the Social Supermarket. The charity offers support for food, education, training, cooking and budgeting as well as a café that is open to the public.

For more information, please visit: https://strabanecommunityproject.org.uk/services/grassroots-and-ssm

To find out more about Strabane BID and the work they do, please visit: https://www.derrystrabane.com/business/business-support/strabane-bid