Groups and charities across East Cambridgeshire have received a funding boost thanks to money raised at last year’s Ely Fireworks event.

Ely Standard:

Ely Community Events Team, who organised the 2018 Ely Fireworks in Cherry Hill park, donated £500 to Littleport Gymnastics Club to help them provide sessions for 0-4 year olds and purchase suitable equipment for the “Little Legs” sessions. The money will also be used to run sessions for people with additional need and those requiring specialist care.

Ely Lighthouse Centre received a cheque for £620 to provide them with new round tables for their lunch clubs to help support the elderly people in the community.

The Isle of Ely Rowing Club requested £380 for some new rubber matting for their floating landing stage, which is a safety feature to prevent slips and trips when entering and exiting the river.

Cambridgeshire Wildlife Care, a small volunteer-run charity dedicated to the rescue and rehabilitation of wildlife in Ely and the surrounding area, received £500 towards helping them erect a new building which will help to house hedgehogs in the colder months.

Ely Standard:

Cruise Bereavement Care and Strong Soham Mums – a charity set up by a group of mothers in Soham who have all lost a child to help raise money for the Addenbrookes Charitable Trust and the Road Victims Trust – each received £250.

Chris Beale, who is has been processing the charity requests, said: “It has taken a little longer than we anticipated to start distributing the funds, but we have been out and about these last few weeks giving away our first lot of donations of around £3,000 to local deserving charities.

“All the requests are received and then the ECET team discuss each one, ensuring that each request is treated fairly and equally.

“We already have more money to give away and have another dozen requests to look through at our next meeting where we hope to be able to donate the remaining £7,000 of the £10,000 raised to local charities.

“It’s been fantastic to be able to help so many people and I am looking forward to being able to visit more local charities with my colleagues to present more donations over the coming weeks”

Ely Community Events Team is made up of members from the Rotary clubs of Ely, Ely Hereward and Soham Staploe as well as members from Ely District Scouts.

They are a new community organisation who hope to be able to run a few more events in the city over the coming years to help support even more local charities and are hoping to be able to run the 2019 fireworks in Cherry Hill again.

If you think you could offer support to their team or help with sponsorship for the fireworks email pr@ecet.org.uk