A TEAM of Garden Centre Association (GCA) members are celebrating after being crowned the winners after an afternoon of FUNdraising raised £50,000 towards a £100,000 total for national charity Greenfingers (January 2023).
Teams competed for the Greenfingers Challenge Cup during an afternoon of bowling, crazy golf, crazy pool and curling to mark the start of the GCA annual conference, which saw The Cabbages team take the crown.
Guy Topping, MD at Barton Grange Garden Centre, who has regularly captained The Pansies team, made up of garden centre owners and staff, said: “This year, the Pansies, headed up by Will Blake, and The Cabbages, captained by Ian Flounders from Woodlodge Products went head-to-head in a variety of activities, including bowling, crazy golf, crazy pool and curling at The Flower Bowl Entertainment Venue.
“The Cabbages lifted the cup and we’d like to say a huge ‘congratulations’ to them, but most importantly I’d like to thank everyone who took part or sponsored the event and helped raise much needed funds.”
Fundraising continued throughout the conference and went on to raise a total of £100,000 for the charity.
Established in 1999, Greenfingers Charity supports life-limited 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 almost 70 gardens and outdoor spaces in hospices around the country and has a waiting list of hospices that need its help now.
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.
For further information, please visit www.gca.org.uk.
