ONE of Scotland’s leading 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 business and will be allocated amongst the three winning charities, which were chosen from a raft of applications.
One of the charities is Airdrie’s Moira Anderson Foundation, which offers invaluable support for children and adults affected by childhood sexual abuse.
Another one is Watermill Foundation, the Nairn-based trust that gives children with physical and developmental disabilities the opportunity to race and ride bikes.
The final charity is Ormlie Community Association, which provides social services and care to individuals and their families within a deprived area of the Highlands.
A further £5,000 donation will be split amongst seven runners up.
Andrews Hospice, Diamonds in the Community, James Support Group, and Seaboard Memorial Hall are some of the runners up.
Culrain and District Hall Committee, Young Enterprise Scotland Highland, and Moray and Scotland Charity Air Ambulance are also included.
The International Beverage Spirit of Our Community Awards were launched in 2022.
They celebrate and reward the people and organisations working 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.
Entries are 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, split into three zones.
Zone 1 was the ML5 and ML6 Airdrie and Coatbridge region.
Zone 2 covered the area within a 25-mile radius of Aberdeenshire’s Knockdhu Distillery and Speyside-based distilleries Balmenach and Speyburn.
The 25-mile radius around the business’s two more northerly distilleries, Pulteney in Wick and Balblair in Tain, was zone 3.
Spirit of Our Community Awards organiser and International Beverage Business
Support Manager Eileen Rae praised the competition.
Eileen 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.”
The scheme is International Beverage’s biggest charity commitment to date. Members of the team plan to take up volunteering opportunities with selected charities where possible.
