A Bournemouth shopping centre and their customers have been given the ultimate “thank you” with awards recognition for multi-million-pound relief programme.
The Castlepoint community’s kindness has been highlighted this week with news that the Ukraine Relief programme was awarded a national retail industry award as the best example of a community initiative in the country.
The Sceptre Awards is a retail industry awards programme designed to acknowledge and celebrate best practice amongst those operating in shopping places across the UK.
Their 2022 awards took place in London last week and saw Castlepoint take home the “Community Initiative of the Year” award for the South region, but also crowned the best community initiative of the year nationwide for 2022.
READ MORE: Castlepoint in Bournemouth flooded with donations for Ukraine
The Ukraine Relief programme, which co-ordinates donations from across the region has been based in a 14,000 sq ft shop unit at Castlepoint since early March.
It became the base for the coming together of more than 2,500 volunteers to sort and pack goods donated by thousands of kind-hearted individuals from the Bournemouth area and beyond.
The initiative saw hundreds of articulated lorries, with over 4,000 pallets of equipment, leave Castlepoint bound for Ukraine between March and May alone.
The ‘totaliser’ for the value of aid raised has continued to rise from an astounding initial rush of public giving in Spring, and has now surpassed £10m, with an estimated 2,000 tonnes of aid providing a lifeline to Ukrainian people.
READ MORE: Mayor of Bournemouth visits Help from Bournemouth to Ukraine
Ukraine Relief is now an ambassador of Hospitals in Ukraine, and all the aid has helped tens of thousands of people in the war-torn country.
David Pickett, centre manager for Castlepoint said: “Thank you so much to all the volunteers, every person that brought goods to donate to the aid effort and the Bournemouth community as a whole for rallying together for this cause.
"Ultimately, this award is not about Castlepoint as a place but about the incredible community we are at the heart of."
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