A nationwide organisation that supports literacy in primary schools is one of five charities in Bedfordshire to receive a £1,000 Christmas gift thanks to Ecclesiastical Insurance.
Schoolreaders, a charity based on Brickhill Drive, Bedford, was nominated to win a share of £120,000 by members of the public as part of the specialist insurer’s annual ’12 Days of Giving’ Christmas funding campaign.
The charity matches volunteers to UK primary schools giving free one-to-one reading support to children and is one of 120 winning organisations across the UK, picked at random from all those nominated.
1,856 Bedfordshire residents nominated a cause close to their hearts, with 87 charitable causes in the area receiving votes.
A spokesperson from Schoolreaders said: “In 2019 our results showed that in an academic year, 95% of children progressed in their reading age between one to six months after time with one of our volunteers.
“Ecclesiastical’s funding will provide more than 66 children with weekly one to one reading support sessions for a whole academic year and will make a real difference to the lives of so many children and their wider communities.”
Thanking supporters in Bedfordshire, Mark Hews, Group CEO at Ecclesiastical, said: “In these challenging times, we are delighted to be giving back to good courses once more with our annual 12 days of giving Christmas campaign.
“Having supported thousands of charities over the past four years of the campaign, we know that £1,000 can make a real difference to the incredible work that charities do.
“We’re looking forward to seeing how this festive financial boost will change lives for the better and we hope these donations can bring a positive start to 2022.”
The full list of the 120 charity winners is available to view online here.
