VIDEO: Reasons to be charitable

Saturday 29 April 2017

Reasons to be Grateful opens its gates this weekend and the family friendly festival is getting charitable by partnering with three local charities for the event on 30 April.

The festival has announced they will be supporting three charities at the event; YES (Youth Enquiry Service), Caring Cooks and NSPCC Jersey.

Festival Directors Ben Newman and John O'Connell said: "It has long been an ambition of Reasons to be able to give back to the local community.”

“With Reasons to be Grateful we have decided to take this one step further and leverage this dedication to local causes by working with three key charities that directly benefit local life, each with its own special dedicated zone within RTBG festival site at Howard Davis Park.

YES is a project that provides free information, advice and counselling for all young people aged 14-25 years. It is part of the Jersey Youth Trust Charity and they will be at Reasons offering support of young people and or families on the day.

A spokesperson for the charity said they were “pleased" to be able to attend the event and said: “We will have staff working throughout the day from our gazebo and around the arena itself.  We will be there to provide an outreach service as part of the Jersey Youth Service welfare team to support the needs of young people on the day and address any matters that should arise.”

“YES continuously takes every opportunity to support local initiatives to raise awareness of the project to promote the services that are available for young people in Jersey.”

Pictured: YES will have a gazebo at the festival next Sunday.

Reasons to be Grateful will also be supporting Caring Cooks with the help of Islands Insurance who are sponsoring a range of family activities at the arts and music festival.

Caring Cooks of Jersey are planning a full schedule of food-related activities on the day ranging from live cookery demonstrations and tastings to a fantastic pedal powered smoothie bike and ‘make and take’ sessions.

Melissa Nobrega, founder and Chief Executive of Caring Cooks, said: “We are delighted to be part of the Reasons to be Grateful festival.  Not only because it is a family event, but because the whole ethos really resonates with what Caring Cooks, and the people who work and volunteer for us, stand for. 

“It’s the perfect stage for us to share our vision with the community, and get visitors to the festival inspired and involved with ‘everything food’ in our Caring Cooks marquee.  We couldn’t have done it without the sponsorship and the volunteers from Islands.”

Shirley Lester, Director at Islands Insurance, said they were "delighted" to support such a major family and community event and hoped that their sponsorship of the Caring Cooks marquee and activity programme would help raise awareness of the charity and the nature of the advice and support it provided.

She said: “Our motto is Taking Care of Tomorrow, and we fully support the great work Caring Cooks is doing to help ensure that Jersey’s children, and future generations, grow up healthy and recognise the importance of good food and nutrition.”

NSPCC Jersey is also one of the charities that will be at the Reasons to be Grateful festival next weekend. Teaming up with Sports Bug, they will be providing lots of fun games and challenges for families at the event.

Festival Directors Ben Newman and John O'Connell also added: “Although we will be supporting three key charities this year we, as ever, hold an open door policy when it comes to supporting and encouraging local charities in whatever way we can. If your charity aspires to connect with the Reasons audience please do not hesitate to get in touch.

“We will facilitate wherever we can, and will also be looking ahead to next year's key charitable focuses. No cause too small, no idea too creative. We welcome them all.”