MEET Bagpuss - a street cat who needs your help.

He is one of many stray cats and kittens helped by Band of Rescuers North Yorkshire (BORNY), a local charity run by a small group of trustees and volunteers who give their free time to better the lives of cats and kittens in North Yorkshire.

BORNY is one of five local charities that have been nominated for a share of £25,000 that The Press is giving away to good causes in our area.

Ten more charities have already been put forward for a share of the money which has been provided by The Press’ parent company’s charitable arm, The Gannett Foundation. Those nominated so far are: SNAPPY, Shine 21, Haxby Memorial Hall, The Island, York Wheels, Door 84, The Hut York, Kyra Women's project, York Samaritans, and Hearing Dogs for the Deaf.

Besides BORNY, four more charities vying for the cash are: RSPCA, York Rescue Boat, St Sampson Centre for the over 60s, and Haxby Playgroups. Here is some more information about our latest nominations...

BORNY: Nominated by Angela Butler who said: "The pandemic has of course affected fundraising for the charity but the support needed across the community has not reduced. More and more cats and their owners/finders have needed support and BORNY has been there to offer services throughout these difficult times.

"The money will be put into a fund to help street cats who have no owner but require veterinary attention or general welfare support. Funds can be used to pay for vet bills but also the maintenance of street cats until new homes can be found, if appropriate."

Haxby Playgroups CIO (HPG)

York Press: Haxby Playgroups - which is appealing for a share of £25,000 charity cash giveawayHaxby Playgroups - which is appealing for a share of £25,000 charity cash giveaway

A small charity playgroup that provides pre-school provision for children in the Haxby and Wigginton areas.

Its chairperson Becky Macfarlane said: "HPG has a small but incredibly hard working team of highly qualified and dedicated practitioners who have worked tirelessly through the pandemic to ensure minimal disruption to the children's development. The team and committee are committed to improving provisions for parents and carers within the community and feel a dedicated baby group post-pandemic is one way they can do this.

"HPG are looking to set up a weekly, supportive baby group for parents/carers within the local area. The group will be for new born babies up to walking to provide a safe and quiet space to make connections and receive support."

St Sampson's Centre for the over 60s

This charity was nominated by Dave Hobman who said: "This charity runs the St Sampson's Centre which offers somewhere safe for the elderly to meet, socialise and get snacks and hot meals. They operate on a very tight budget relying on volunteers and a management committee. Open Monday to Friday from 10am. Any funds or profit is put straight back into the centre. A very worthwhile charity in the city centre of York."

He said the cash would be spent on refurbishment of the annexe kitchen, which was badly needed, and new crockery.

York Rescue Boat

York Press: York Rescue BoatYork Rescue Boat

York Rescue Boat is an independent lifeboat and search and rescue charity based in York.

It was nominated by Matthew Sellers who said: "Our volunteers provide 24/7 365 day support to both the police and fire service when dealing with water-related emergencies in the York area. A key aspect of the drowning prevention work is our educational outreach programme delivering water safety education in schools, colleges and youth groups.

"With your support money raised would be used to increase and improve our education by purchasing additional equipment. This will enable us to teach more young people lifesaving water safety knowledge and help reduce the number of fatalities."

RSPCA York, Harrogate & District Branch

This nomination reads: "The RSPCA York Animal Home is a successful rehoming centre, matching hundreds of animals every year with their forever homes in the local area. We never give up on a rehomeable animal and often take in animals that other organisations turn away.

"The branch is primarily self funded, relying on the kindness of our supporters to fund our vital work. Grants are few and far between for animal charities, limiting some of the services we would ideally like to provide (such as financial assistance for low income adopters).

"We bring an indescribable happiness to members of the community who find their pets through us.

"A share of £25,000 would mean so much to our small charity and help us to go the extra mile for our loyal supporters."

How would the money be spent?

"We want adoption to be accessible to everyone, however we recognise that the cost of neutering and vet bills can sometimes feel overwhelming to families on lower incomes. Currently we are struggling to find the funds to support these families in the way we would like to. The money from this grant would go towards providing low income adopters with neutering vouchers and financial assistance with vet bills (subject to the approval of our animal care team). This will help us rescue, rehabilitate and rehome more animals."

There is still time to nominate your favourite local charity - the deadline is October 3, after which, eight nominees will be selected and Press readers invited to "vote" for which charities should receive a share of the cash.

Please note, the 15 charities already nominated DO NOT need to be nominated again.

If you have a DIFFERENT local charity to nominate please do so through this online form: www.yorkpress.co.uk/readerschoice/

How to nominate:

Making a nomination couldn’t be easier – simply send us the details via the attachment at the bottom of this article or visit: www.yorkpress.co.uk/readerschoice/

You will need to confirm the name and charity number of the local charity you’d like to nominate and why it deserves the cash - and what it will spend it on. Send us some photos too!

How you can vote for the winners:

Once all nominations have been received, we will select eight of the local charities to be featured in this year’s grants scheme.

We’re then going to put the power to allocate the cash back into the hands of our readers – for four weeks, readers will be 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 the tokens collected, it will receive 50 per cent of the funding.

Rules:

The Press’ parent company’s charitable arm, The Gannett Foundation, is providing the £25,000 to give away in our local area.

Entries must be registered charities and must not have received a grant from the scheme within the last two years.

Grants will not be awarded for payments such as salaries, professional fees or day-to-day running or maintenance costs or projects that do not bring benefits to local communities.

Grants have been awarded in the past to York charities including Holgate Windmill, which used the money to buy equipment enabling it to produce flour, Citizens Advice York and The Regen Centre, a charity in Riccall which used the funding for its ‘Changing Places’ project - adapting one of its changing rooms at its community centre for people with disabilities.

Deadline:

Nominations must be received by the closing date of Sunday, October 3, 2021.

Send us your nomination now via the link below...