Going for Gold at Wick's Tesco supermarket as local charity wins £10K award – 'It was truly a special day and a great achievement'
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Shoppers at Wick's Tesco store took part in a special lucky dip for a golden token to benefit a local charity with £10,000 on Saturday afternoon.
The event took place at the entrance to the supermarket with numerous people invited to try and find a specially created gold version of Tesco's blue voting token amongst others in a bag.
Pulteneytown People's Project (PPP) Lunch Club for the Elderly, East End Football Club and Trinkie Heritage Preservation Group were the local good causes vying for the £10,000 up for grabs after the supermarket chain had nominated the Wick store to take part in its Golden Grant competition.
Starting at noon, shoppers were invited to put their hand in a bag to find the golden token and then nominate which charity they preferred out of the three. Tension ramped up as the clock was almost at 1pm – the time that the event was due to end – and representatives from the three charities stood around and hoped for the best.
With just a few seconds to spare the golden token was finally pulled from the bag by Jane McCarthy from Bower who deposited it in the PPP slot.
"I was just doing my shopping and heading home," said Jane who was also given a Tesco voucher as a thank you for taking part.
"They just asked me to put my hand in the bag and if I got the gold token I could pick which one I wanted to put it in. Ten thousand for PPP is good."
Jennifer Harvey, development officer at PPP, admitted she felt nervous with the anticipation but was delighted with the result. "It's for a lunch club for elderly people at the Pulteneytown People's Project and we started it many years ago," she said.
"There are about 30 to 40 members that come each week and they get a cooked meal. We've got some of our volunteer ladies with us today. They cook, drive buses, they serve and clean up. The only way to sustain it is by running it with volunteers so this will make an incredible difference to us."
Jennifer said the money will help to open the club up to more people and make it more inclusive. There is also a local talent spot included where local people come in to entertain the members.
Karen Center, Wick Tesco community champion, was recognised by her store director as a "colleague who is dedicated to helping" her local community.
She said: "I would like to thank my manager Mark Driver for nominating me and I was overwhelmed to be selected. It was lovely to get recognition, especially from Tesco CEO Jason Tarry thanking me for my hard work and for a job I love doing."
Karen added: "Our store got selected for a Golden Token – only 97 stores in the UK got selected and I was overwhelmed that our store in Wick was the only one in the Highlands. It was a great achievement as the next nearest store was Dundee. Our day went well and at exactly 1pm a customer pulled out the golden token. She selected PPP Lunch Club for the Elderly.
"All three groups were there on the day awaiting the outcome and to see who would receive £10,000. I would like to thank everyone on the day who was part of this milestone within our store. It was truly a special day and a great achievement to be part of."
The award will be officially handed over by Tesco to PPP's lunch club charity on Wednesday afternoon.
Tesco has donated £100 million in community grants to more than 50,000 good causes since the initiative was launched in 2016. Good causes that have benefited include breakfast clubs, food banks, meals on wheels, playgrounds, parks, counselling and support services for young people and children’s sports teams.
