Moors in the Community’s vast and varying projects across the local area have received a significant boost after being donated over £4,500 from the Mayor’s Charity Appeal.

Tuesday night saw the Annual Meeting of Spennymoor Town Council which represented Cllr Dean Raynard’s final night as Mayor as he was succeeded in the role by Moors’ General Manager, Ian Geldard.

Throughout the past civic year, Cllr Raynard has led a tireless and impressive fundraising appeal which brought in an incredible amount of £9,118.74.

And it was confirmed on Tuesday evening that the money raised would be split equally between Moors in the Community and ManHealth, an organisation providing peer support groups to men struggling with depressing and mental ill health.

“It was an absolute pleasure to be invited to Cllr Dean Raynard’s last night as Mayor of Spennymoor,” said Luke Cowie, Moors’ Community Development Manager.

“To receive such an enormous donation from the people of Spennymoor is a true honour and a testament to the hard work put in by Dean to fundraise throughout the year.

“We’ve only been in existence for one year, but this donation will allow Moors in the Community to further enhance the ways we directly benefit the people of Spennymoor.

“It will help us bolster our 10 currently active projects but also help us to create and run new programmes to target other social groups across our community.

“We can provide the best quality equipment, enhance the opportunities we can offer for all within our community to succeed and, ultimately, help us with our aim to bring the whole town closer together.”

Cllr Raynard added: “It was a pleasure to present a cheque to each organisation for £4,559.37, which will help to further the work they do in our local area.”

Thank you to Cllr Raynard and to the people of Spennymoor for their generosity and best wishes to Ian Geldard after accepting the nomination to take office as Town Mayor for the upcoming civic year.