Conservation project ‘Back from the Brink‘ is appealing for votes after reaching the finals of the 25th Birthday National Lottery Awards – the search for the UK’s favourite ever National Lottery-funded projects.
As a press release from RSPB explains, “more than 565,000 National Lottery grants have been awarded since 1994, the equivalent of around 200 life-changing projects in every UK postcode district helping to strengthen communities, deliver sporting success, protect the environment, unleash local creative talent and look after the elderly and those at risk.”
Back from the Brink is competing in the Best Heritage Project category, and has seemingly outflanked competition from more than 700 organisations to reach the public voting stage in this year’s National Lottery Awards, which celebrate things people do with the help of National Lottery funding.
The project with the most votes will receive a £10,000 cash prize, an iconic National Lottery Awards trophy and attend an awards ceremony to be broadcast on BBC One in November.
The RSPB says: “Back from the Brink is on a mission to save 20 endangered species from extinction and benefit more than 200 others at risk through its 19 projects across England. This initiative is unique in scale and ambition, bringing together a large group of conservation and wildlife charities for the first time ever and working from Cornwall up to Northumberland. Over the past two years they have reintroduced an extinct butterfly to England, rediscovered pine martens in Northumberland, and re-established rare arable plants in the landscape.”
James Harding-Morris of Back from the Brink says winning a prestigious National Lottery Award and having their work showcased on national television would be an honour.
He said: “What an honour it is to be nominated for such a prestigious award! National Lottery has been fundamental in ensuring that we are able to bring 20 endangered species of animals, plants and fungi back from the very brink of extinction, whilst improving the future prospects for over 200 more, so to be acknowledged by them feels very special indeed.
“We hope to continue to preserve some of our country’s most intriguing and unique wildlife, and a National Lottery Award will go a long way in allowing us to continue doing this. Everyone please get behind us and vote for Back from the Brink!”
Jonathan Tuchner, from the National Lottery, added: “It’s thanks to National Lottery players, who raise more than £30 million each week for good causes, that brilliant projects like those in the finals of the National Lottery Awards are possible.
“Back from the Brink is doing an incredible job engaging local communities with endangered species and the work they do is hugely impressive. They thoroughly deserve to be in the finals of the 25th Birthday National Lottery Awards and with your support they could be a winner.”
To vote go to www.lotterygoodcauses.org.uk/awards. You can also follow the campaign on Twitter: hashtag #NLAwards. Voting runs from 9am on 24 July until midnight on 21 August.
The award categories reflect the main areas of National Lottery funding: heritage, sport, arts, culture and film, community and charity, sporting legend which will be decided by a public vote alongside lifetime achievement, young hero, special recognition, and twelve local legend awards, which will be selected by a panel made up of representatives from the National Lottery family.
The first National Lottery draw took place on 19 November 1994. The 25th birthday is “a moment to celebrate the extraordinary impact The National Lottery has had on the UK and, most importantly, to say thank you to National Lottery players for contributing tens of millions of pounds every week to good causes,” says the RSPB press release.
As the release says, “Whilst The National Lottery is all about winning – with more than 5,100 millionaires created since 1994 – its primary purpose is all about giving. National Lottery players have raised more than £40 billion for good causes in the areas of arts, sport, heritage and community over the past 25 years.”
