The finalists of the National Lottery Awards have been revealed - with six Scottish groups hoping for a funding boost
Six Scottish projects are looking for votes in a public competition for funding.
The varied organisations are appealing for support after reaching the finals of the National Lottery Awards – the annual search for the public’s favourite lottery-funded projects.
Fife’s Kingdom Off Road Motorcycle Club, The Senior Centre in Castlemilk, Falkirk’s Freedom of Mind Choir, The Ecology Centre in Kinghorn, The Hebridean Whale and Dolphin Trust’s Whale Track app and veteran support charity, Fares4Free, beat off stiff competition from over 700 organisations to reach the public voting stage in this year’s National Lottery Awards. The awards celebrate the inspirational people and projects who do extraordinary things with National Lottery funding.
The winners of the seven National Lottery Awards categories will each get a £5,000 cash prize to spend on their project, a trophy and to attend a star-studded glitzy awards ceremony to be broadcast on BBC One on 26 September 2018.
In the running for best voluntary/charity project is Fares4Free, a Scotland-wide charity which asks taxi drivers to give four fares for free per month to help veterans, of all ages, who find it difficult to get out and about. Battling it out in the same category is the Senior Centre in Castlemilk, Glasgow, which describes itself as a youth club for the over 55s and aims to tackle isolation and loneliness in the local community.
Competing for best environment project is The Ecology Centre in Kinghorn, Fife, which offers environmental education, volunteering and training opportunities to people of all ages and abilities. It will face competition in the same category from Whale Track, a first-of-its-kind smartphone app, developed by the Hebridean Whale and Dolphin Trust, which allows anyone to submit marine mammal sightings off the west coast of Scotland.
Falkirk’s Freedom of Mind Choir, which aims to improve the physical, mental and emotional wellbeing of participants through singing, is looking for votes to win best health project.
Meanwhile, Kingdom Off Road Motorcycle Club, which was set up in response to a tide of anti-social and criminal behaviour by young motorbike riders in Fife, is up against six other from across the UK in the best sports project category.
Musician, activist and National Lottery Awards ambassador, Professor Green, said: “It’s thanks to National Lottery players, who raise over £30 million each week for good causes, that extraordinary projects like those in the finals of the National Lottery Awards are possible.
“All the finalists are doing an incredible job for the benefit of their local community and the work they do is hugely impressive. So what are you waiting for? Give them your support and get voting.”
Voting is open now and runs until midnight on 27 July.
