Aviva Broker Community Fund Award Winner 2013
Oval Coventry has a close association with a local Coventry and Warwickshire charity, the Friendship Project for Children (Friendship Project). Involvement of Oval staff in fund raising events and activities is encouraged by Cheryll Rawbone, Managing Director of Oval Coventry, who is also a founding trustee of the charity. Oval provide hands on practical support with office space for meetings; printing of guidelines and information leaflets; and distribution of newsletters, so are a valuable resource for the Friendship Project. As well as Cheryll who is the current Vice Chairman, Valerie Wallace Burrows, Facilities Manager at Coventry is Honorary Secretary.
In January, Valerie entered the Friendship Project into the Aviva Broker Community Fund Awards and we were delighted when we reached the final, competing against 214 other insurance brokers from around the UK. As part of the award, Aviva sent a camcorder and instructions on how to produce a film to promote the charity and with some professional assistance from Martyn Lee,- Media & Communications at Coventry University; a 15 minute production was filmed at the Coventry Transport Museum.
The film was accepted and we were invited to the Grand Finale on Tuesday 16 April. We attended a reception and lunch in London, along with the other 24 finalists and we are delighted to report that we were presented with a cheque for £7,500, together with a plaque for the Oval Coventry office, from Will Greenwood, member of the 2003 England World Cup winning team. Cheryll and Valerie representing Oval, along with two other members of the Friendship Project, John Hancock and Jean Dennis, were delighted to accept the award.
Oval Coventry is proud to be associated with this local charity, which has helped over 1,500 disadvantaged children since foundation in 1986, and we are delighted that we have been able to help ease the fundraising burden by winning this award from Aviva, one of our insurer partners, and also providing promotional opportunity for the charity too.
Each year the Friendship Project has to raise in excess of £45,000, so this award will contribute significantly in helping to improve the social and emotional well-being of disadvantaged children. The Friendship Project is keen to recruit both additional volunteers and to receive further donations.
