Twenty-two widescreen televisions have been donated to community groups across Newport. Staff at the Holiday Inn on The Coldra contacted Newport City Homes and asked for help to find new homes for the TVs.
NCH's Regeneration and Community Development Team got in touch with groups across the city and asked if a large TV would help their vital work. Earlier this week the two organisations travelled across the city in a white van and handed over the televisions.
Michael Parry-Jones from Newport City Homes, said: "We love spending time with and supporting groups that do incredible things in our community. It was a special day visiting so many of them with this free gift, courtesy of Holiday Inn Newport. As soon as they called us we knew we could find the right places where a large screen would help. The 22 screens will make a difference in things as varied as sports clubs to food banks to adult education to DIY skills.
Cat Williams from Holiday Inn Newport, said: "Every group that we met was thrilled with the donation. The best bit of the day was hearing each of them proudly tell us how the new screen would be used and the impact it would make in their venue."
Kate Porter, from KB Boxing, a women-only gym in Shaftesbury, said: "The TVs will support our menopause and movement classes coming up in the New Year."
Matthew Bell from Men's Shed said: "We used to have a small laptop that we would all huddle around for training. We can now have more people around the screen doing training. It'll save us time having more people around. We often use YouTube for projects and we can now watch the video and remind ourselves what we're supposed to be doing. Thanks so much to Holiday Inn. "It's very kind of them and we will put them to good use."
Lewis Allcock from The Cwtch at Monnow Primary School, said: "It's going to go a long way to supporting our community and families and adding to the purpose of this community cwtch. It will open up the types of workshops and activities that we can provide for the families."
Ann Royle from Bettws in Bloom, said: "Thank you so much. This is very important to us because we don't have a television set. When groups want to use one, they have to bring their own. We have groups that do things like maths lessons, mums and toddlers, and crafts. This television will come in so handy."
Emma Byron from Stow Park Church and Community Centre, said: "I'd like to say from the bottom of my heart thank you very much. These are going to make such an impact on our community. We run a food bank here, we do community meals, martial arts, drama lessons. It's going to benefit the community hugely. The TV that we've got just gone on the blink so this couldn't have come at a better time."
Bryon James, from the Sanctuary Project, said: "Thank you for the Samsung TV. It's come at the perfect time as we modernise our entrance area. We plan to use it to showcase future events and to signpost our participants to other events and services in the city. We can't wait to play educational videos through it, some created by our participants. It will help to bring our reception area into this century. It's so great these TVs can be reused and aren't ending up in landfill. It will also cut our need for leaflets and printing. Thank you for picking us to be one of the beneficiaries. We're so grateful".