An East Devon project is among thousands of good causes throughout the UK to share in more than £1 billion awarded by the National Lottery during the last year to support people and projects cope with the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.
As the first anniversary of lockdown approaches, new figures revealed today show that over £1.2 billion of good causes funding has been awarded by The National Lottery in the UK during the last year, providing a much-needed boost for the arts, heritage, sport and community/charity sector.
The funding has helped protect the future for thousands of organisations across the UK during the last year.
Beer Men’s Shed, spearheaded by Founder and Chairman, Chris Pickles, supports men who suffer from loneliness, isolation or social exclusion in Beer and was awarded a £10,000 grant by The National Lottery Community Fund.
The project is continually expanding in East Devon and, when the pandemic struck, needed to construct a bigger workshop to allow all its members to socialise in a socially-distanced fashion.
The grant they received has allowed them to build a bigger ‘shed’ and Chris, who used to work in technology and retired to Beer in 2016, says the funding has made all the difference.
Chris, 69, said: “The grant that we received from the National Lottery Community Fund is helping us to build a much larger shed.
“We have the equipment, but we need the space for more men, and this means that more men can benefit from this project with the grant right across the area.
“The support in Beer is tremendous, and people see everywhere they go the stuff that the Men’s Shed has done.
“They know that this is the National Lottery helping make their community stronger.”
Beer Men’s Shed is one of thousands of projects nationwide to have benefited from the £30 million raised by National Lottery players every week.
The £1.2 billion awarded by the National Lottery in the last year has gone towards thousands of initiatives and programmes designed to tackle loneliness and isolation, provide support for the elderly and vulnerable young people, and those promoting physical and mental health in the community.
The project set out to construct a shed four times as large as its current structure, providing a crucial outlet of emotional support for men in Beer who are suffering.
Chris runs the project alongside Honorary President David Boalch, Secretary Eric Cozens, Treasurer Barry Follett and Legal Adviser Martin Shobbrook, who have been organising three support group sessions a week since they reopened in January.
All five men are acutely aware of the critical work they are doing and Chris, who lives alone in Beer, insists it wouldn’t be possible without National Lottery players.
“With National Lottery tickets, you win in two ways,” he added.
“In one way, you stand a chance of making some money for yourself to win, but the other thing is you know you’re winning because you’re helping communities all around the UK to reinforce themselves against what Covid has done.
“They’re helping us rebuild, so that you can add to a stronger community than when you went in. “Community has really stood out as something that really holds together through hard times, and I think by people going to buy National Lottery tickets, they know they’re doing something good for the community.”
To find out more about how The National Lottery supports good causes throughout the UK, visit www.lotterygoodcauses.org.uk
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