YOUR VETERANS NEED YOU!
The Taxi Charity is appealing for your votes as it strives to get national recognition for our veterans disabled in war, on BBC One in this year’s National Lottery Awards.
The project beat off stiff competition from over 600 organisations to reach the public voting stage in this year’s National Lottery Awards – the annual search for the UK’s favourite Lottery-funded projects.
The London Taxi Benevolent Association for War Disabled (aka Taxi Charity) is competing against six other projects to be crowned the winner of the Charity/Voluntary category.
If they win, they get a £3,000 cash prize to spend on their project, an iconic National Lottery Awards trophy and the chance to attend a star-studded glittering Awards ceremony in London, and be featured in a special Awards show, broadcast on BBC One in September.
Dick Goodwin is the Events Organiser for the Taxi Charity, which is mostly made up of volunteer taxi drivers and has been running trips for veterans since 1948 – usually to Worthing.
With a special anniversary coming up, the Association applied for National Lottery funding – and was successful. The Lottery funding meant they could do something really special.
Last year, 92 London taxi drivers and volunteers took 120 WWII veterans, and their carers on a five-day trip to the Netherlands, to join the Dutch people for the 70th anniversary of the liberation. The veterans were picked up from their homes or the Union Jack Club in Waterloo and taken in black cabs for the trip in May 2015. When they got to Holland, the locals gave them a true heroes’ welcome, lining the roads, cheering and waving flags.
For Dick, winning the prestigious National Lottery Award and having the veterans showcased on national television would be an honour. He says: “I’m absolutely delighted that we’ve reached the finals of the National Lottery Awards. It’s really easy to vote, so we’re hoping that people will get behind us. It would be a fantastic reward for everyone involved in the project as well as recognition for the veterans – for them to know the public care about them, remember and respect what they went through.”
TV star and actor John Barrowman will be presenting the National Lottery Awards for the sixth time this year. He says:
“The National Lottery Awards are a great way to shine a spotlight on outstanding lottery-funded projects. Now in their 13th year, the Awards celebrate the talent and dedication of the amazing staff and volunteers that run incredible life-changing Lottery funded projects for the benefit of their communities and the people who live in them.
“This project has worked very hard to become a finalist and they now need your support because the project with the most votes in each category will be crowned the winner.
“Projects like this receive funding thanks to National Lottery players who raise £36 million every single week for Good Causes across the UK.”
To vote for the London Taxi Benevolent Association for War Disabled please go to www.lotterygoodcauses.org.uk/awards or telephone 0844 836 9712. Follow the campaign on twitter: #NLAwards. Voting runs for four weeks from 9am on Wednesday 22 June until midnight on Wednesday 20 July.
There are seven projects competing for votes across seven categories , reflecting the main areas of National Lottery funding: arts, sport, heritage, health, environment, education and voluntary/charity.
For further information please contact The National Lottery Awards: caroline.roberts@lotterygoodcauses.org.uk or call 020 7211 3936
Notes to Editors
The London Taxi Benevolent Association for War Disabled received £42,000 of National Lottery funding through the Big Lottery Fund.
Telephone voting calls cost 5p max. A connection charge may be applied by some networks. Please check with your provider.
All voting will be independently adjudicated and verified by Electoral Reform Services.