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FIFTH ANNIVERSARY OF THE MALL'S FOUNTAIN CHARITY FUND
FIVE YEARS OF GIVING
The Mall at Cribbs Causeway's Fountain Charity Fund, established in March 2003, is celebrating five years of supporting local charities. We take a look at the Fountain Fund and some of the causes which have benefited from the money donated by shoppers.
The fountain at The Mall at Cribbs Causeway has had a magnetic appeal for children ever since the shopping centre opened just over 10 years ago. Kids of all ages are drawn by the hypnotic sound of the water as it shoots up into the atrium above before cascading downwards again.
And while they watch the water going through its acrobatic motions, the children throw coins of every shape and size into the water. And not just a few coins, we're talking large quantities of coins - enough to fill four large black domestic wheelie bins every month. That's £10,000 of coins every year!
So what happens to all this money that is so generously donated by Mall shoppers?
For the first five years of The Mall's life, local scout groups laboriously helped Mall staff empty the coins from the fountain, drying them, bagging them and then banking the proceeds to help pay for new equipment they needed. It was hard work and they earned every penny but the money enabled many local scout groups to fund new camping gear, fix broken down Scout huts and train new Scout leaders.
Giving grants
Five years ago in March 2003, The Mall established its Fountain Charity Fund to open up the money to a wider group of worthwhile organisations. And so Charity Number 1080418 was born, with the aim of supporting local charitable organisations within a 25 mile radius of The Mall.
Since then The Mall's Fountain Charity Fund has given 82 grants totalling £54,843. The charity is administered by the Quartet Community Foundation which manages and distributes charitable funds on behalf of individuals, companies and organisations in the West of England.
The Mall meets with Quartet once a year in March to review the grant applications. As the largest grant available is £1,000, they look for organisations where a small amount of money can make a big difference. This also means The Mall can help a larger number of organisations.
Deserving causes
Grants have gone to a wide variety of deserving causes to benefit the young and old, the disadvantaged, the disabled and the bereaved and those providing valuable community facilities and services.
One of the first grants given in 2003 was £1,000 to the No Way Trust. It funded a crime awareness activity day in local schools. It was a multi-agency high impact event designed to challenge young peoples' perceptions related to crime, consequences and imprisonment and provide them with a realistic experience that will enable most to go forward with their lives in a positive way.
In 2005 Ability Sports Association, a charity that provides professionally coached sports and active recreation for disabled and disadvantaged children and adults across the West of England, was awarded a £500 grant. It used the money to buy specialist portable sports equipment to deliver outreach sport and leisure activities for adults with disabilities around the region.
Last year Lawrence Weston Community Farm received £1,000 towards a new wooden cowshed for two rare breed Dexter cows while the Indigo Project used its £480 grant to fund a phone counselling service for young people at risk of self-harming.
Whether large or small, what all the grants have in common is that they help local voluntary organisations carry out vital community initiatives.
This year, The Mall's Fountain Fund has helped 17 local groups in Bristol and South Gloucestershire (see panel below). Representatives from the charities visited The Mall last week to receive their cheques from The Mall's Maria Crayton.
"We are always amazed and impressed by the huge variety of extremely worthwhile voluntary projects going on around us," says Maria. "It gives us enormous pleasure to support some of them through our Fountain Charity Fund.
"We must also thank our customers who continue to throw money into our fountain and provide the basis for our Fund - without their generosity, we couldn't support so many worthwhile causes."
Cedric Clapp of Quartet Community Foundation says: "The Fountain Fund is a wonderful example of how local people carrying out simple tasks like shopping can take part in helping local communities grow stronger. All your pennies, made into small grants, truly do make a huge difference to the lives of local people in need."
Collecting the Coins out of the Fountain
Once a month, on a Sunday evening after The Mall has closed, Chris Manning and his team set to work collecting the thousands of coins from the fountain. After draining the water from the fountain, they use heavy-duty wet vacuum cleaners to suck up the coins and transfer them into big black wheelie bins.
The next morning, the money is moved from the wheelie bins into a cement mixer - the largest suitable receptacle! - where it is descaled. By the Tuesday, Chris's team is laying out all the coins on large dust sheets to dry for up to a week before they are counted up into money bags ready for banking.
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