Community lottery announces first £25k winner

Edition: Summer 2022

Our Horsham District Community Lottery was delighted to announce its first £25k winner recently.

The winning local lady wishes to remain anonymous but we can share that she selected to support Horsham-based Phoenix Stroke Club when buying her ticket. Here we take a look at how the lottery helps local charities (including Friends of Horsham Park, pictured above).

Charities have been severely impacted by the effects of the pandemic and desperately need to raise more funds, which makes the role of the Council’s Community Lottery more important than ever.

Launched in September 2019,it raises in the region of £60,000annually for a wide variety of the District’s voluntary and community groups.

It currently achieves around 1,900 weekly ticket sales with almost1,000 regular weekly players. Since its launch some 100 local charities, volunteer groups, community groups and local good causes have registered with the lottery and have benefitted from the considerable funds raised.

Jane Burrows, founder of Rangers Lodge Wildlife Hospital, with a hedgehog

Nursing wildlife back to health

One of the organisations which now benefits from the lottery is the Rangers Lodge Wildlife Hospital in Colgate. The hospital, which is a not for profit organisation, provides sanctuary for local wildlife, treating sick, injured and orphaned wild animals and nursing them back to health. Their aim is then to release them back into the wild. They can only survive and provide this great service from grateful donations from the local community.

The lottery funds we receive go straight into our charity bank account and pay for everyday medicines, food and equipment for our sick animals. They are also put towards the day to day running costs of the hospital. We are so thankful for the lottery funds which make a huge difference to us as we rely completely on donations and the work of volunteers.

Jane Burrows, Rangers Lodge Wildlife Hospital founder

Hedgehog at Rangers Lodge Wildlife Hospital (RLWH)

The Hospital team is currently looking for volunteers to help it with fundraising, book keeping and looking after the animals. If you would like to make a donation please visit the Rangers Lodge Wildlife Hospital website.

Keeping Horsham Park beautiful

Another regular recipient of lottery funds is the Friends of Horsham Park Group. The Friends of Horsham Park is a group of volunteers who work to protect, enhance and promote our beautiful park as a place of recreation and enjoyment for the local community.

Each year the group receives some £550 from the sale of lottery tickets. These vital funds keep the group afloat and enable many non-grant funded activities.

Lottery funds have been used to buy pollinator-friendly seeds and plants for our Wednesday morning volunteer gardening sessions. Our volunteers have donated over 1,000 hours in the last year to enhancing the park – planting, weeding, pruning and clearing paths.
We have also used funds to create materials for free children’s nature activities and to produce educational posters in the park about the six target species we support: bumble bees, hedgehogs, butterflies, stag beetles, redwings and fieldfares.
A highlight for our lottery spending last year was the contribution of £200 towards the making of a ‘Virtual Day Trip to Horsham Park’ which combines short film clips of the park with activities and discussion for those unable to visit the park in person.
Without the lottery funds we would have to spend more time fund-raising to cover our running costs and charge for activities that are currently free. The funds help us to be inclusive in what we do and that’s important –we believe everyone should be able to enjoy what our wonderful park has to offer.

Sally Sanderson, Chairman of Friends of Horsham Park

How the lottery works

Everyone buying a ticket can choose which community group they want to support. There are many different types of organisations to support, from sports clubs, school associations and amateur dramatic societies, to local environmental groups, community projects and those giving support to the vulnerable members of our community.

At these difficult times for so many organisations we would still encourage more groups and players to get involved – it’s free to join, easy to sign up and every group has the potential to raise vital funds for their work.

All groups involved are also given marketing support to help them reach out to their supporters in what we know are challenging times for them.

Tickets cost just £1 each, with 60p in each pound going to support local good causes.