About Wooden Spoon
They say charity begins at home. Wooden Spoon began on the rugby field. That was in 1983. Since then, ‘Spoon’ - as we have become known – has grown into one of the UK and Ireland’s fastest-growing charities.
Spoon works by supporting people and organisations who can deliver services that make a difference to young people. Most of the funds we donate go directly to capital projects that have a lasting impact. Since its inception, over £14 million has been invested in more than 270 projects. As a result, 500,000 children, young people and their families throughout the UK and Ireland have benefited. Spoon currently has more than 50 ongoing projects – with funding in excess of £2.5 million – active across the UK and Ireland. Below are just some of these projects:
· A sports centre for disabled children at the Percy Hedley Foundation, Newcastle - £250,000
· A parents’ facility within the Intensive Care Unit at the Royal Hospital for Sick Children, Glasgow - £50,000
· A baby unit in the children’s ward at the Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital Middlesex - £250,000
We raise money by running events that are as much about fun as they are about fundraising. Spoon now raises over £1.5million a year through such national events such as the Four Peaks Challenge, the Ford Ranger Great Lakeland Challenge, and our Annual Ball.
Spoon is very active on the local level too, with golf days, sporting dinners and concerts organised by 43 voluntary regional committees from Aberdeen to Cornwall and Ulster to Guernsey who raise funds for projects within their region so you're never very far from a Wooden Spoon event or project.
Our patrons are HRH The Princess Royal and the four home Rugby Unions. Spoon has more than 10,000 social members throughout the UK.
Our mission is:
To enhance the quality and prospect of life for children
and young people in the United Kingdom and Ireland who
are disadvantaged physically, mentally or socially.
For more information about Wooden Spoon, please take a look at our website:
www.woodenspoon.com
Our history
The Wooden Spoon, or Spoon as it’s known to it’s friends, was founded 25 years ago after England ‘won’ the Wooden Spoon in the 1983 Five Nations. Spoon is the charity of British and Irish rugby and its work has helped over 500,000 disadvantaged children and young people all over the UK and Ireland.
Spoon believes in having fun whilst fundraising and hosts a broad range of regional and national events from celebrity golf days and sporting dinners to triathlons, marathons, and mountain climbing.
Over the last five years Spoon has consistently raised in excess of £1million. In addition to outstanding fundraising results from the many regional and national events, the generosity of its many corporate and individual supporters continues to grow.
HRH The Princess Royal is Spoon’s Royal Patron. Other active supporters include Lawrence Dallaglio MBE, Richard Hill MBE, Gavin Hastings, Willie John McBride and many other well-known past and present rugby players. The support network extends down to the grass roots level of the game and there are over 43 active regional committees run by volunteers working to raise funds locally. Spoon is a national charity operating at a local level.
Spoon has six rugby teams that represent the charity on and off the pitch helping to promote its work with children to rugby fans around the world. The 270 plus projects completed over the last 25 years include projects to help children and young people combat bullying, violence, crime, obesity and discrimination as well as providing grants for playgrounds, sensory rooms, hydrotherapy pools and life skills centres.
If you would like to give something back to those less fortunate than yourself then participate in a Spoon event and raise funds for disadvantaged children and young people in your area. Alternatively why not join us and become a member of the charity or donate here online – start stirring smiles!
Tel: 01276 410 180
Fax: 01276 410 181
Email: members@woodenspoon.com
Web: wwww.woodenspoon.com