40 groups to receive a share of 2011 Community Investment Fund
Keech Hospice Care is one of 150 local groups who applied for a slice of the Community Investment Fund for 2011. All applications were carefully considered and more than 40 groups will receive a share of the Fund, with grants ranging from £500 to £2,500.
Veolia Water employee Michala Mawdsley nominated the charity for the community money as her four-year-old daughter, Tillie, has day care at the Luton hospice. Tillie has a rare, degenerative condition called Sanfilippo Syndrome that causes challenging behavior, poor sleep and leaves her more susceptible to infections.
"Keech really has been a lifeline, offering practical help and emotional support for me and my family. The bedrooms at the Hospice would benefit from brightening up," explained Michala, who lives in Hatfield and works at Veolia Water's main Hatfield site in the correspondence team.
Jennie Collier, Head of Day Care at the Hospice, added: "We want to theme the bedrooms and use projectors to inject colour and interest to make them a more appealing place to stay."
Veolia Water Central Managing Director, Richard Bienfait, said: "Veolia Water is delighted to support local groups through our Community Investment Fund. We increased the fund from £30,000 in 2010 to £50,000 this year as we had so many worthy applications.
"Veolia Water cares for its local community and we hope the Community Investment Fund will make a difference to the groups that have been selected this year," he added.
A committee of Veolia Water staff - many of whom live locally - allocated the money and will be visiting some of the successful projects to see for themselves how the money will benefit the organisations.
Another Luton-base charity benefitted from the Veolia Water grant - £1,000 has been donated to Out & About, a charity that helps disabled young people.
Further information about the beneficiaries of the 2011 Community Investment Fund can be found www.veoliawater.co.uk/communityfund.
Notes to Editors:
For further information please contact Sue Pavey on: Tel. 01707 277110, email: [email protected], website:www.veoliawater.co.uk/news
About us:
Veolia Water Central is the UK's largest water supply only company and is part of Veolia Water UK. We are committed to delivering a high quality water service to all our customers. We provide 870 million litres of water each day to a population of 3 million people, in parts of Bedfordshire, Berkshire, Buckinghamshire, Essex, Hertfordshire, Surrey, the London Boroughs of Harrow and Hillingdon and parts of the London Boroughs of Barnet, Brent, Ealing, and Enfield. Our supply area covers a total of 3,700 square kilometres, stretching from Luton and Royston in the north to Guildford in the south, and from Berkhamsted in the west to Dunmow in the east.
For more information visit www.veoliawater.co.uk/central or follow us on www.twitter.com/veoliawateruk.