WE ARE giving local charities the chance to take a share of a whopping £125,000 cash giveaway - and one of the local charities which could benefit is Sparkle - but only if readers vote for them.

Our parent company’s charitable arm, The Gannett Foundation, is providing £125,000 in cash to support local charities across the country and we are delighted to have a £20,000 share to give away in our area.

And we asked you to decide where this money should be spent.

You nominated in your thousands and our editorial team chose a shortlist of eight charities from these nominations which will share in the £20,000. The more votes they get, the bigger percentage of the £20,000 they receive.

Sparkle is a pioneering charity which provides children and young people with disabilities and/or developmental difficulties and their families living in Gwent.

It is the partner appeal of the unique Serennu Centre in Newport and also works across two other sites - the Nevill Hall Children’s Centre, Abergavenny, and Caerphilly Children’s Centre, Caerphilly.

The charity needs to raise hundreds of thousands of pounds every year to maintain the many vital and diverse services it provides for children and young peoples across Gwent.

Chairwoman Dr Sabine Maguire, who was the driving force behind the setting up of the charity and the creation of the Serennu, said: “Our aim is always to ensure that children with disabilities and their families have access to the same range of opportunities, experiences and services as other children.”

At the Serennu in Newport, children and their families are able to access everything from treatment and care to information, leisure services and support under one roof.

The Gannett Foundation grant would allow the charity to add to the facilities offered by creating a woodland walk through its grounds.

Dr Maguire said: “This would allow us to let our children, and those in the wider community, enjoy access to nature and take part in outdoor activities in a safe environment.

“The impact of the pandemic has emphasised the importance of access to nature and the outdoors for all. This grant would enable us to offer that vital opportunity to the hundreds of children we support in Serennu every year.”

As woodland walks are often inaccessible to wheelchair users, this project would create a totally wheelchair-accessible path, seating areas, bird and bat boxes and statues of animals for children to discover.

Sparkle needs to raise £14,300 to turn the idea into a reality.

“It would be so beneficial for so many children and young people to get this project off the ground so please vote for us,” said Dr Maguire.

The other charities nominated for the Wales and West region are:

  • Helping Caring Team, which is based in Oakdale
  • Motion Control Dance, Barry;
  • St Giles Animal Rescue, Taunton;
  • Phoenix Bereavement Support, Hereford;
  • Ethos - @ The Living Room, Hereford;
  • 2 Wish Unit 7, Magden Park, Llantrisant;
  • Chard and District Museum, Chard.

We have put the power to allocate the cash back into the hands of our readers – during November, you are invited to collect tokens from our newspapers which can then be sent to collection points across our region or posted. Each token collected will then be used to allocate cash to the nominated charity – so if your favourite charity collects 50 per cent of all to tokens collected, it will receive 50 per cent of the £20,000.

Collection points in Gwent can be found at:

  • South Wales Argus' Newport city centre office, Chartist Tower, Upper Dock Street, Newport;
  • Bellevue Stores, Cardiff Road and Mendelgeif Road, Newport;
  • AJS Stores, Pentonville, Newport;
  • Premier Express, Church Road, Maindee, Newport;
  • Ed Logan Stores, Ed Logan Way, Croesyceiliog, Cwmbran;
  • Pontypool Post Office, Osbourne Road, Pontypool;
  • Co-op, West End Shopping Centre, Newport Road, Caldicot;
  • WH Smith, 16 High Street, Chepstow.

Newsquest terms and conditions will apply where relevant to the grants process; visit www.newsquest.co.uk/prize-competition-rules Personal data will be used by Newsquest and its agents solely for the administration of the grants process and will not be shared with any third party; our general privacy notice is at: www.newsquest.co.uk/privacy-policy. This campaign will be published in multiple Newsquest publications across this Newsquest region. The eight charities chosen by the local editorial panel will be voted for by our readers. The value of the grant awarded to each of the eight charities will be calculated pro rata according to their share of the vote. Only original voting coupons will be accepted, no photocopies. The cash grants will be sent by BACS transfer. Grants are conditional on completion of the relevant project and a successful nominee charity may be required to evidence its use of the grant. The top eight charities selected for the vote will be contacted to provide additional information for entry into the readers’ vote; should this information not be provided within the timescale provided then the editorial panel will select an alternative charity. The charity must be registered with the Charities Commission and have not received a grant from the Gannett Foundation in the last two years.