The big drive to help others

In its 15-year history the members of Eglinton Classic Car Club have raised over £50,000 for worthy causes in the district, making the group one of the most successful fundraising groups in the district. It is a track record of helping charities locally that very much pleases the current chairman of the group, John Nixon, but he stresses that it really is a team effort.

The first group ever to benefit from the fundraising efforts of the club was back in 1996, when Faughanvale Parish Church received 1,364; in 1998 Foyle Hospice received 6,500 which was the largest individual sum ever presented by the group to a chosen charity. Other notable sums include 5,000 each to Marie Curie Cancer Care (2004), Foyle Down's Syndrome (2005) and MacMillan Cancer Support in 2009.

Professional organisations such as the emergency services have benefitted as have volunteering organisations like Rainbow Animal Shelter in Eglinton.

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The chosen charity this year is Diabetes UK (Limavady Support Group), and anyone wishing to sponsor or support this group is urged to telephone 02877764501 or 0711788755.

“The year Ken Sayers was the treasurer, Owen Shields was secretary at that time and I was elected chairman we put our heads together with Gerald O’Donnell, who was the president, and we thought that we could do things. Before that we had raised abit here and a bit there, but we thought maybe we could do things for charities.

“The first big year we ever had was in St Columb’s Park and after that the rest was history. We have raised over 53,514 for charities over the years,” said John Nixon, the current chairman.

Recalling the first time the group embarked on a specific course of fundraising, John remembered with pride how the club members raised 1,364 for Faughanvale Parish Church, which was raising money at the time to help off-set the costs of works at the church hall.

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“I think it was acutally Gerald O’Donnell that proposed that,” he recalls, saying that the club regularly receives letter now, from charities hopeful that they will be the next lucky recipients of a cash windfall from the group.

Asked what the club actually did, John explains: “When we start off at the AGM, which is held in January, we vote on what charity we will support. We receive a lot of letter and all the letter are read out to the floor or committee and they all take a vote on it at the end. So it is a completely democratic way to do it and whichever gets the most votes is the charity that get the money that year. So that’s the way it is done and that is why we have been able to help so many groups. There have been quite a few charities that have come back to us and asked if we can do something else the demand is so great.

“It is for Diabetes UK this year and wheat we are trying to do is do a local thing for them with the Limavady Support Group. We have found that people will work hard for you if you have got a good charity. So the club sets up the prizes for the draws, say a raffle and we get people to sell the tickets and we sell them ourselves, and the draw is done and the more tickets we sell the better because you get the money at the gate from the people bringing their cars to exhibit and you get the money from the raffle tickets.”

Anyone in doubt of the group’s fundraising abilities should take a look at the impressive list of charities they have helped over the years log onto their website at http://www.eglintonclassicclub.co.uk/Charity.htm

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