Delight as Lotto cash dished out
Football crazy youngsters and a scheme to preserve a popular urban park in the Black Country are among those to benefit from the National Lottery's latest cash handout.
Football crazy youngsters and a scheme to preserve a popular urban park in the Black Country are among those to benefit from the National Lottery's latest cash handout.
A total of £468,645 is being distributed to 65 groups across the West Midlands in the March round of the Awards for All grants. Among those in line to benefit is Tividale Hall Primary School, in Sandwell, which has received £4,850 for plants and equipment to develop a large area of overgrown land next to the school building.
Warley Woods Community Trust has been awarded a £9,930 grant to rejuvenate its 100-acre urban park, while Wolverhampton Photographic Society and Camera Club has received £4,463 for new equipment.
Brocton football club in Stafford, Pelsall Village Primary School in Walsall and Trysull and Seisdon Cricket Club have also been boosted by cash injections.
Awards for All is the small grants scheme administered by the Big Lottery Fund and makes awards of between £300 and £10,000 to grass-roots community groups and voluntary organisations.
Ashmore Park Rangers Junior Football Club based in Wolverhampton received £6,956 for new equipment.
Club coach John Bird said: "We have 12 teams and around 200 children so a lot of youngsters will benefit from this. We are absolutely delighted, awards like this and sponsorship is how these kind of clubs survive."
Wolverhampton Photographic Society and Camera Club member Chris Nutt said: "We hope to spend the money on a digital projector which will help us improve the quality of pictures and help us in competitions."
The Warley Woods Community Trust will use the money it received to provide special horticultural training for volunteers.
Member Vivienne Cole said: "This funding is fantastic news. It's a very big park, and the woods in particular need attention.
"We'll use the money to bring in professional horticulturalists to train our pool of volunteers and they in turn will look after the park in the future, caring for the entire woodland."
By Helen Cartwright