Five stores from the North Coast area recently joined forces to raise money for local Northern Ireland charity, Air Ambulance NI (AANI).

The stores and their local communities enjoyed multiple fundraising days which ran throughout a week in May, including this year’s North West 200 weekend, raising over £2,675 for the charity.

All five stores held instore bucket collections, decorated the store with posters and balloons and swapped their uniforms for charity t-shirts, raising awareness for the charity.

Donations are critical to keep AANI in the air and responding to the country’s most critical accidents. The charity were also one of six local organisations to have been awarded with a £10,000 grant from SPAR NI as part of their Community Cashback Scheme earlier this year.

Pictured at SPAR Route Service Station in Ballymoney are representatives from the five participating stores, Aaron Galbraith, Rea Turner, Sharon Moore, Nicola McCloskey, Chris Stewart, Catherine Campbell, AANI representative Tracy Strachan, Deborah McGuigan, Molly McGuigan and Tracey Boyd. Credit JComms

placeholder image — Pictured at SPAR Route Service Station in Ballymoney are representatives from the five participating stores, Aaron Galbraith, Rea Turner, Sharon Moore, Nicola McCloskey, Chris Stewart, Catherine Campbell, AANI representative Tracy Strachan, Deborah McGuigan, Molly McGuigan and Tracey Boyd. Credit JComms

Rea Turner from SPAR Mountsandel commented: “It was great to join forces with our other stores in the local area and raise money for such a deserving charity.

“All stores had amazing feedback from those in their communities who enjoyed paying a visit to make a donation. Our store teams also loved welcoming our communities for the fundraising events and everyone enjoyed a great atmosphere across the week. I want to thank all store teams for their efforts and our shoppers for their generosity, this donation will go such a long way in helping AANI save more lives across the country.”

The stores involved in the fundraising were SPAR Route Service Station in Ballymoney, SPAR Mountsandel and SPAR Millburn in Coleraine, EUROSPAR Hillcrest in Portrush and SPAR Castlerock.