Hamilton PSA

Charity search engine Everyclick.com is running a nationwide competition to find Britain’s Most Inspiring Fundraiser, in memory of the late Jane Tomlinson. From today until 28 March, Everyclick.com is asking the British public to nominate the unsung fundraising heroes of their communities, with £20,000 going to the winner’s charity of choice.

Everyclick.com has joined forces with Mike Tomlinson, the widower of Jane Tomlinson, who raised more than £1.75 million for cancer charities through a serious of gruelling physical challenges, whilst battling breast cancer. Jane died in September 2007, but her family are keen to keep her legacy alive.

Friends, family members or colleagues can nominate someone whom they think deserves the accolade. Nominators will be asked to supply simple details about their nominee and an outline of their fundraising efforts for charity including the impact this has had.

Mike Tomlinson said: “We want to keep Jane’s memory alive by encouraging everyone to do whatever they can for charity. Even the simplest things can make an incredible difference, not everyone can run marathons but it can be as effortless as switching your search engine.”

Everyclick.com has already raised more than £400,000 for charities in the UK.

Is there anyone at Hamilton PSA or elsewhere that you know who deserves nominating? Nominate them online.

The closing date for nominations is 28 March 2008.

Save the Children and British Gas have announced the next funding round of the Help Yourselves Awards. Tell them what would change the lives of children and young people in your community and apply for a Help Yourselves Award of £1,000. Higher-level Awards of up to £5,000 and £10,000 will be available in future funding rounds for projects helping those living in communities experiencing severe poverty.

The £1,000 Help Yourselves Awards will fund projects that have a positive impact on the circumstances and experiences of children and young people:

· through the improvement of life chances

· that are strongly young-person led

· that benefit vulnerable and disadvantaged groups

The next deadline for completed applications is Friday 28 March 2008 – with £1,000 funded projects expected to take place between June and the end of August 2008. The website has full details of the Help Yourselves Awards – where you can find a set of guidance notes, an online application process, or the option to download a hard-copy of the application form.

DIY and garden centre retailer B&Q is offering awards of between £1,000 and £10,000 of its products to voluntary organisations in its new One Planet Living Awards for 2008.

The awards are open to environmental groups, community organisations, schools, charities or sports clubs who are helping to regenerate local areas, support local culture/heritage projects, or supporting wildlife, natural habitats and energy saving activities.

The awards are part of B&Q’s new partnership with environmental impact experts BioRegional which aims “to help B&Q reduce its ecological footprint and help their customers do the same”.

B&Q is also offering two awards of £5,000 combined cash/product to schools who submit “innovative science-based proposals, showing a real understanding about the environment and the importance of tackling climate change”.

Applications will be accepted between 28 January and 28 March 2008, and application forwards are available for download from B&Q.

The Starbucks Bookdrive Crossword is offering 20 prizes of £500 worth of books for a local primary school of your choice. Pick up a copy of the crossword in a Starbucks store or download it here (PDF). Once complete, rearrange the 11 letters in shaded squares to identify the winning code phrase.

The Crossword has been put together by The Times, but don’t let that put you off. You’ve got until 7 January 2008 to submit your entry.

Full details at the Starbucks Bookdrive.

Mobile company O2 and The Conservation Foundation have re-launched It’s your Community, offering community grants from £100 to £1000 to individuals and organisations with a project idea “that you can show will benefit your community”.

Projects should be for the benefit of the community, or to build community spirit. They should offer a physical improvement that you can touch, be likely to make real, tangible results that you can see, and/or demonstrate fresh, bold and innovative thinking.

Do you work for BT? If you’re a BT employee from anywhere in the world who has been involved with a community group, like Hamilton PSA, for more than twelve months, you can apply for a cash grant of up to £500 or a branded sports kit.

The BT Community Champions programme has four reviews in each financial year, and applicants are eligible to apply once in each four review period. The next two closing dates are 12 July and 11 October 2007.

Find out more at www.btcommunitychampions.com.

To promote its new Quality of life Unit, Essex County Council is offering residents the chance to win £10,000 to improve the quality of life for their community. To be entered into the draw all you have to do is fill in the one-page survey on page eight of the July issue of the Council’s Essex Matters magazine, which has probably dropped through your door this week.

You can also fill in the survey online at the Essex County Council’s website. Entries must be received by 5pm on 16 July 2007.

The winning suggestion chosen by the Council’s panel will be “implemented by the County Council to improve the quality of life for local residents”.

While individuals and schools can’t make applications, there’s nothing to stop you coming up with an idea that would benefit Hamilton pupils indirectly.