North Group Donates over £75,000 to Local Charities and Community Groups
Directors and staff of the Newcastle-upon-Tyne based North Group, one of the world’s largest shipping insurance mutuals, have donated £76,500 to North East charities and community groups this month. The donations were made through the ‘North 150 Fund’, a charitable trust set up to commemorate the group’s 150th anniversary five years ago. Recipients this year include 15 local charities nominated by the group’s 263 staff at its Quayside head office, plus several local community groups with which North has close relationships.
The fund’s CSR committee chair Catherine Doyle says, ‘We are delighted to continue supporting charities and community groups in the North East, which is primarily due to the huge fund-raising efforts of North’s staff over the past year and the continuing generosity of the group’s international shipowner directors’.
The locally-based charities and campaigns nominated by staff are: Alex’s Angels (Teenage Cancer Trust), If U Care Share Foundation, Maggie’s Newcastle, Patchwork Project and Percy Hedley Foundation; April Karmazyn-Wall, Daft as a Brush, Gateshead Portage Service, Gibside School, Crohns & Colitis UK (Durham & Wearside), Dudley United Football Club, Gosforth Sea Scouts, 1st Hexham Scout Troop, St Cuthbert’s Hospice and Sea Cadets Newcastle East.
‘We have also established a Community Partnership Fund within the North 150 Fund to provide sponsorship to local organisations we have developed close relationships with,’ says Doyle. The organisations selected are: Royal National Lifeboat Institution (North East); Newcastle Falcons Community Foundation, Northumberland County Cricket Club, Ocean Youth Trust North and the Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art.
‘In addition we are continuing our partnership with the Community Foundation of Tyne & Wear and Northumberland for a further year,’ says Doyle. ‘This includes awarding grants to Blyth Tall Ship for mooring costs in Blyth, to Cramlington Volunteer Youth Project for their archery activity centre and to the Gateshead Food Bank for van rental.’
National and international charities nominated by North’s staff include the Greek Association of Naval Parents of Children with Special Needs (Argo), the UK-based Apostleship of the Sea and UK cancer charity CLIC Sargent. North Group staff have also separately raised over £8,000 this year for the Ocean and Shipping Community Advancing Children’s Health and Research (OSCAR) campaign for Great Ormond Street Hospital.
ENDS
For further information contact: Kim Heaselden +44 191 232 5221
Note to Editors
North is one of world’s top three mutual maritime liability insurers, insuring around 5,000 ships – approximately 10% of the world’s ocean-going fleet by tonnage – for accidental third-party damage to other ships, harbours, cargo, people and the environment. It also provides legal, war risks and ancillary cover to shipowners and operators. In addition, through its guaranteed subsidiary Sunderland Marine, North is a leading insurer of fishing vessels, small craft and aquaculture risks. The group has an ‘A’ financial strength rating from Standard and Poor’s. Employing around 350 staff, the group is based in Newcastle upon Tyne, UK (263 staff) with regional offices in Greece, Hong Kong, Japan and Singapore and Sunderland Marine offices worldwide.
Robert Hall MBE of Cramlington Volunteer Youth Project (CVYP), Kim Heaselden (North), Margaret Smithurst (North) and Stacie Cox (CVYP)