A WINTER fundraising campaign has pulled in more than £9,000 for a dale farming charity.
Utass (Upper Teesdale Agricultural Support Services) teamed up with Barclays Bank to invite residents to dress in their winter woollies to show support for the charity and make donations. For every £1 given, Barclays Bank matched the amount.
Grace Crawford, from Utass, and Natasha Bradley, branch manager at Barclays in Middleton-in-Teesdale, came up with the idea to provide fun for the community during the lockdown festive season. Donations poured in and businesses, individuals and school children shared photographs wearing their woolly items. The campaign raised £4,991, which has been doubled by the bank, meaning £9,981 will be given to the charity. Ms Crawford said: “We’re overwhelmed with the amount of support we got from the campaign. It has been great working together with Natasha and her team.
“We are so grateful to have such strong community support. As a charity, the more funding we are able to get, the more we can provide to help our communities.
“Thanks to this campaign, in addition to our usual services, we are able to deliver regular telephone contact for people living across the dales, as well as meals, shopping, and deliveries. We’re also planning a range of activities that will bring local people together again when we are able to. We’d like to make the winter woollies day an annual event – even though we were all separated it made us feel like we were together.”
Ms Bradley said: “Barclays encourages us to get involved in the causes we care about and so we’re delighted with the amount raised for Utass. It’s about giving back our skills, time and energy to support our communities to make a lasting difference.”
