Write a commentOver 40 older people’s groups had an extra reason to celebrate this Christmas after a bumper £40K giveaway was announced at the Community Foundation for Northern Ireland’s anniversary celebrations. Accolade Community Choir based in Newry and Banbridge, was one of the groups who received funding at a special afternoon tea held on ‘Giving Tuesday’ to mark the charity’s 40th birthday.
Accolade Community Choir promotes community harmony by developing music based projects for everyone in the community. Accolade aims to promote equality and diversity and to eliminate discrimination in relation to all communities. Through their music they promote cross-cultural community based arts activities in an effort to advance education and raise awareness about different national and racial groups in order to promote good community relations. Accolade has grown to include three choirs based in Banbridge and Newry, an orchestra, Ukulele group and Bulgarian dance troupe. The organisation has over 100 members with 12 nationalities represented.
Andrew McCracken, Chief Executive of the Community Foundation for Northern Ireland said, “We wanted to celebrate 40 years of connecting people who care with causes that matter and ‘Giving Tuesday’ was the perfect date to highlight the amazing work that our beneficiaries do every day of the year.
“Over the past 40 years we have given away £100 million to charities and community groups and positively impacted hundreds of communities across Northern Ireland. The work we do is about helping to build communities and give them the resources to become more resilient and improve the lives of their members.
