A SCHOOL in East Howe hopes to continue its transformation with a cash windfall – but it needs your votes.

Bourne Academy at Hadow Road has been overhauled over the past few years and is one of the shortlisted organisations that stand to win £2,500 in a competition that the Daily Echo is running in partnership with Tesco as it opens its new store in Kinson.

Echo readers were asked to nominate who they thought should win the cash and the response was so big – more than 1,600 nominations for 118 organisations – that two extra causes were shortlisted.

As finalists, all are guaranteed a runner-up prize of £500 each, but the one with the most votes will get £2,500 in the Helping Hand competition.

Between now and the store’s opening the Echo is profiling each of the six to help people make their choice.

Della Dawson, marketing co-ordinator at the Bourne Academy, which has a charitable trust called The Bourne Foundation that bids for funding, said: “We’re always looking for further funds to better the facilities that are already here.

“We had a lot of building work here and we need the resources to go alongside the facilities that we have.”

Projects include Astroturf and lighting for the multi-use games area and new science equipment.

Della added: “We’re also looking at hiring our facilities out to the wider community, so it would not just benefit the school.

“As a school we’re going in a fantastic direction at the moment, we’re improving every year and it’s nice to have wonderful facilities.”

Shortlisted organisations

  •  Homes 4 Heroes, Bournemouth
  • Lewis-Manning Hospice, Poole
  • The Bourne Academy, East Howe
  • Dorset Dog Rescue, Bournemouth
  • Cherry Tree Nursery, Northbourne
  • Home-Start, Kinson                                                                                                             Round two of the voting process will begin from the day of the Wimborne Road store’s opening, towards the end of January.

When you’ve decided, all you have to do is visit the supermarket and fill out a form, available at the customer service desk, nominate one of the six and put it in a ballot box.

For further information, contact Kinson’s Tesco Community Champion, Sally Teixeira, on tesco.kinson.community@gmail.com