A MUSEUM said it will promote local history after receiving a donation through the ‘Cash for Charities’ campaign.

Chard and District Museum received £4,819 last year after being nominated by the Chard and Ilminster News readers.

The money comes from the Gannett Foundation, the charitable arm of the parent company of Newsquest – publisher of the Chard and Ilminster News, Somerset County Gazette, Bridgwater Mercury, and Burnham and Highbridge Weekly News.

Part of the funding will be used to create the ‘history in a box project,’ a selection of digital and physical artifacts from different time periods.

Museum trustee Howard Bailey said: “It’s still an ongoing project. We created our ‘history in a box’ project, with artifacts and activities involving schools and other organisations.

“We collected historical elements, and we have a collection of documents about the local history of Chard.

“We are having six costumes created about historical figures and characters from Chard.

“It is about making people aware of the local history of Chard. We did quizzes and people did not as much about the local history as we thought.

“It’s to raise awareness really. It’s to make people more aware of history and give more artifacts to kids in schools.”

The campaign is running this year too and it was launched last week.

The £16,000 cash is being provided by our parent company’s charitable arm: The Gannett Foundation.

This year the Gannett Foundation will donate £128,000 to charities across the country.

St Giles Animal Rescue was one of the beneficiaries too last year.

Making a nomination could not be easier – simply log on to www.chardandilminsternews.co.uk/readerschoice and fill in your nomination form or you can write to us, confirming the name and address of the charity you’d like to nominate and why to: Readers’ Choice Cash For Charity Nominations, Tangier Central, Castle St, Taunton, TA1 4AS by the closing date of Sunday, September 11 2022.

Qualifying Criteria:

• Applicants must be registered charities.

• Applicants must not have received a grant from us within the last two years
• Preference to be given to projects supporting those in our communities who are overlooked or under-served.

Grants will not be awarded for:

• Salaries, professional fees, or day-to-day running or maintenance costs of the charity (but this does not exclude such expenses were essential to a specific project)

• General appeals as opposed to specific projects or items of equipment

• Projects that do not bring benefits to our local communities

• Political or religious objectives, or projects that discriminate in favour of particular ethnic or religious groups (but this does not exclude religious organisations offering charitable support to the sick or needy without discrimination)

• State or privately run schools (other than special needs)

• Hospitals (other than hospices)

• Community Interest Companies that are not registered charities.