As a local, family owned business, we pride ourselves in getting involved with the local communities. From fund raising for schools, scouts or local causes, to supporting larger charities locally including Cancer Research and Children In Need. We support Local Causes around all our stores with some key projects undertaken and ongoing in recent time.
We are proud to announce that our owner Richard Dance is a founding member of a new community initiative, ‘Greener Brockenhurst’. Started by members of the Brockenhurst community, this group aims to make the village greener and more environmentally friendly. The group have already started up a new recycling centre in the village and a reusable nappy library. We are always after suggestions from our local community of how we can be greener. Together we can battle climate change and protect our green spaces.
Crofton Ann Dale Junior School’s year 3 class have been taking part in our Eco Project! Our Stubbington store have donated copies of Susie Laan’s ’00Tree Secret Agent of the New Forest’, to help teach them about the importance of recycling and keeping our towns and villages litter free.
Kate Oakley head of year 3 was delighted to take part in the Eco Project and said that ‘The year 3 class loved doing the project and were inspired by the book 00Tree. The children started by using the 00Tree concept and then created their own 00Tree characters including 00Bin and 00Llama using the same storyline, but making it relevant to our school. the children made their own tree out of chicken wire and filled it with litter they found around the school grounds. this has been a lovely project. Thank you Welcome Co-op for the opportunity.’
This year we are pleased to have sponsored Marchwood Rangers YFC football kit! The boys are doing just great and we think they look great in their new kit! Good luck boys!
The unveiling and dedication of the War Memorial took place October 24, 1920 with 2020 celebrating the 100 year anniversary.
The original Memorial was funded by donations from the public back in 1920, with recent work needing to take place to clean, repair and correct some of the writing which had become faded.
The restoration took place during difficult times in 2020, with not only collections made in our Marchwood store but also a donation made by the Company.
The Memorial work has now been completed ready for the 100th anniversary.
Susie Laan, a local author and Illustrator has lived in Ashurst for over 30 years. With success in recent years with her “Elep-hants” books, raising awareness about poaching comes a new book keeping the focus to the local community.
“This is a story about some local children that form the Gretta Group during the Summer holidays. Their mission is to find a solution to the litter problem in Ashurst and the whole of the New Forest. They team up and get creative, but other kids have other ideas.
Local volunteers collect an average of 40 bin liners of litter from around Ashurst as its a serious problem to the New Forest. The book is available in our stores with profits going to organisations that rescue wild animals.
