GARDEN centre and horticultural industry staff are this month (January, 2019) being asked to sign up for a fundraising event being held at the Garden Centre Association’s (GCA) annual conference. Teams will compete for the Greenfingers Challenge Cup during an afternoon of ‘orse racin’ on January 20 at Luton Hoo Hotel to raise money for Greenfingers, which creates gardens at children’s hospices.
Ian Flounders from Woodlodge Products, who captains The Cabbages team, which is made up of garden centre suppliers, said: “We can’t believe it’s that time of year once again! For this year’s Greenfingers Challenge Cup our teams will be competing against each other in a variety of horse races.
“Last year we raised more than £25,000 for the charity and we’re hoping to beat this total this year, so we’re asking anyone who hasn’t yet signed up and would like to, to get in touch via captaincabbage@woodlodge.co.uk or call 07917 425966.
“The Cabbages team won the cup last year and we’re hoping to secure victory for a second year running, so The Pansies team, headed up by Guy Topping, have a challenge on their hands. Ultimately, our main aim is to raise as much money as possible to help our fantastic charity and we hope lots of people get involved.”
If any companies would like to sponsor the event with an advertising space on the course, they can get in touch with Ian.
Greenfingers was launched in November 1998 by a group of volunteers drawn from all sectors of the gardening industry.
It supports children who use hospices around the UK, along with their families, by creating outdoor spaces for them to enjoy with family, friends and siblings, whether through play and fun or therapeutic rest and relaxation. To date it has created 55 gardens and outdoor spaces in hospices around the country.
The GCA represents nearly 200 garden centres nationwide.
Through sharing information and its inspection programme the GCA helps members to achieve high standards in customer service, plant quality and reliability.
The first race, the Greenfingers Novice’s Sprint, will take place at Luton Hoo Hotel on Sunday, January 20 from 4pm.
The GCA’s annual conference takes place at the Luton Hoo Hotel, Luton from January 20 until 23, 2019.
For other information, please call 01244 952170, visit www.gca.org.uk, log on to www.facebook.com/pages/GardenCentreAssociation or follow the organisation on Twitter at www.twitter.com/GC_Association.