I've worked at Asda Huyton since the store first opened 16 years ago and have been community champion here for the past 10 years.
Last year I supported 36 groups, schools and local good causes as well as raising more than £51,000 in fundraising. This included £6,286.28 for Tickled Pink, £2,714.83 for BBC Children In Need, £37,147.64 for local good causes including £11,298.52 for the Royal British Legion and over £5,175 worth of food for the Knowsley Foodbank.
I support many different groups in different ways. This can include helping run activities at holiday clubs by running bread-making and other food activities or running healthy eating lessons with multiple year groups in schools. I’ve helped man stalls at fundraising events and supported local Pride events and even Manchester Sparkle.
I mostly work with schools either running activities from the school toolkit (bread making always goes down well) or running behind-the-scenes tours. Children are often fascinated with Asda and love the opportunity to see what goes on behind the scenes and are always excited when I visit them to run an activity.
People ask me what's my proudest achievement but that's impossible to answer. Having been in this role for over 10 years I've helped an unimaginable number of groups, delivered countless activities with schools, raised over £500,000 for local and national good causes and awarded hundreds of grants that have benefited thousands of local people I can’t pinpoint just one single thing.
The amount of "thank yous" you get when supporting local groups is immense. People are always so grateful for everything we do, but I always say "I’m just doing my job".
I love to see the amazement on children’s faces when they get to see behind the scenes or when they take their creations home from school. It’s always fun when children come up to you in store and say "hi" after you have seen them in school. I go to that many and so many visit us in store that I can’t usually remember what school there from, but they are always excited to see you when they are in shopping with their parents. And the parents always say how excited their child was when they did the activity with Asda.
