Swinton's raffle is community spirit at its best

Swinton Insurance, Upper George Street, held a packed raffle on Tuesday, December 20, inviting the public to buy £1 raffle tickets to help raise funds for The Children’s Society, with whom they are partnered, and RATS, a local animal rehoming centre.

The Mayor of Luton, Cllr Tahir Khan, and Swinton Insurance’s distribution director both gave speeches before the raffle started, with the top prizes being a ride in a sports car and a caravan holiday.

Richard Beaven, distribution director, said: “This is Swinton Insurance at our finest. The Children’s Society do incredible work looking after young people who are significantly disadvantaged.

“They are a national organisation, but we also liked to help local ones, so we ask service managers what is relevant for them.”

Chris Barton, service manager at Upper George Street, chose RATS, a charity close to his heart based near Luton, as he is particularly fond of dogs.

The Mayor said: “It is fantastic to see businesses involved with communities and charites, especially around this time of year.”

The Children’s Society representatives, Lisa Anderson, corporate partnership development manager, and Emily Petty, director of strategic philanthropy, said: “We are very grateful for the work that has gone into the raffle.

“It will go towards supporting the advocacy, counselling, one to one support and group support that we offer to young people aged 10 - 18.

“As an example of our work, one little boy was sexually abused aged 11 and didn’t tell anyone until he was 15. We are helping him come to terms with what happened.”

The raffle was a great success and sales assistant, Corynne Caldbeck, 19, even made a special cake, a Swinton shop with snowmen outside.

She said: “We’ve got a great atmosphere. It’s such a friendly place to work and customers always pop in for a chat!”