Scottish spirits producers, International Beverage, has unveiled the three winning recipients of this year’s Spirit of Our Community Awards.
£20,000 has been donated by the premium spirits business to be allocated amongst the three winning charities, which were chosen from a raft of applications.
They are:
- Airdrie’s Moira Anderson Foundation, which offers support for children and adults affected by childhood sexual abuse;
- Watermill Foundation, the Nairn-based trust that gives children with physical and developmental disabilities the opportunity to race and ride bikes;
- Ormlie Community Association, an organisation that provides social services and care to individuals and their families within a deprived area of the Highlands.
A further £5000 donation will be split amongst the following seven runners up – St Andrews Hospice, Diamonds in the Community, James Support Group, Seaboard Memorial Hall, Culrain and District Hall Committee, Young Enterprise Scotland Highland and Moray and Scotland Charity Air Ambulance.
The International Beverage Spirit of Our Community Awards were launched in 2022 to celebrate and reward the people and organisations working hard to make a difference to others in the community surrounding the company’s head office in Airdrie.
In 2023 the initiative was extended to communities close to the company’s five Scottish distilleries, where separate prize funds were allocated.
Judged by a mix of International Beverage employees and external associates, the competition was open to any charity or not for profit organisation based within a 25-mile radius of the business’s key distilleries.
This divides the initiative into Zone 1 – the ML5 and ML6 Airdrie and Coatbridge region; Zone 2 – within a 25-mile radius of Aberdeenshire’s Knockdhu Distillery and Speyside-based distilleries Balmenach and Speyburn; and Zone 3 – within a 25-mile radius of the business’s two most northerly distilleries, Pulteney in Wick and Balblair in Tain.
Spirit of Our Community Awards organiser, International Beverage’s business support manager Eileen Rae, said: “We have once again had a fantastic response to our competition, and we were really excited to extend it Scotland-wide for its second year.
“There really are so many deserving charities across our distillery communities and the standard of entries was extremely high. Our business is thrilled to announce our 2023 winners and runners up and we are looking forward to supporting their inspiring community projects over the months ahead.”
