WARWICKSHIRE County Cricket Club’s official charity – the Edgbaston Foundation – has struck a partnership with local charity Thrive Together Birmingham to utilise Edgbaston Stadium as a food sorting and distribution centre to support foodbanks and community groups.
With the car park at Edgbaston already donated to the Department of Health and Social Care to be a COVID-19 drive-through test centre, Thrive Together Birmingham will store non-perishable food within Edgbaston’s Exhibition Hall and it will work with volunteers to sort, repackage and distribute items to organisations supporting those in need.
No food donations can be made on-site at Edgbaston, with the nearby St. Mary and Saint Ambrose Church, on Raglan Road, acting as a collection centre between 11am and 3.30pm every Friday.
Ravi Masih, Head of Community Engagement at Warwickshire CCC and Lead of the Edgbaston Foundation, said: “Since we moved into the forced stadium closure, club staff have been committed to doing all we can to make a difference in our local community by providing free use of our stadium and grounds, fund-raising for important causes and through volunteering.
“We’re thrilled we can build on our community response during this period by working with such a fantastic charity, in Thrive Together Birmingham, to support those in need.”
Fred Rattley CEO of Thrive Together Birmingham, said: ‘‘We are delighted the Edgbaston Foundation have partnered with Thrive Together Birmingham to collect much-needed food to help the Brum Together coalition of organisations providing emergency food to people who are most impacted by COVID-19.”
As a further part of Warwickshire CCC’s community response, its staff have committed to raising funds for Queen Elizabeth Hospital Birmingham Charity and the NSPCC’s Childline service in Birmingham through the 2.6 Challenge.
More than 30 staff are taking part in the challenge and have collectively pledged to cover Warwickshire’s founding year of 1882, in kilometres, before the end of May. Visit uk.virginmoneygiving.com/Team/Bears4 to support the team and donate.
FURTHER fund-raising is also being co-originated through sales of a charity T-shirt which features an adapted version of Warwickshire’s iconic Bear & Ragged Staff logo that has been designed by first team coach Jim Troughton.
Available in men’s, women’s and children’s sizes, the T-shirts are priced at £15 each, with all proceeds raised being donated to Queen Elizabeth Hospital Birmingham Charity and the NSPCC Childline service in Birmingham.
Bears fans can now pre-order one of the special edition shirts online at Store 94. However, please bear in mind all deliveries will take place once the current Government working guidelines are amended and staff can return to Edgbaston.
The charity T-shirts follow on the commitment from Warwickshire CCC and Edgbaston staff to raise funds for both charities through the 2.6 Challenge – a series of exercise-related challenges undertaken individually before the end of May.
These challenges include Safety Manager David Clarke cycling 260 miles, Executive Membership Account Manager Heidi Smith undertaking 26 minutes of High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT) on ten consecutive days and Head of Conference and Events Sales Maria Clune running 2.6 miles each day.
Donate to the team’s fund-raising efforts at the above address.
