Tag: Royal Bank of Scotland

STV to celebrate Scotland’s community heroes

STV_Carol Smillie_RBS Finding Scotlands Real Heroes_Nov 2013_smallFet-Lor, Scotland’s oldest youth club, and Leith-based MS Therapy Centre will both feature on the forthcoming series of RBS – Finding Scotland’s Real Heroes, which starts on STV on Friday 15 August.

Presented by Carol Smillie (pictured above) and sponsored by the Royal Bank of Scotland, the STV series celebrates people whose tireless effort, resourcefulness, and kindness has improved local communities across Scotland.

The nominees were selected by a special jury and will feature in a series of programmes to be aired from 15 August with each episode on every Friday evening thereafter. Across the five episodes, ‘star reporters’ will visit each of the nominees to interview them about their work in the community and their thoughts on the nomination for a Real Hero award. The star reporters this year include The X Factor runner-up Nicholas McDonald, actress Clare Grogan, Taggart star Alex Norton and actor Bill Paterson.

The year’s shortlist includes deserving Scots from Wick to West Lothian, and Skye to South Lanarkshire, recognising the amazing work local people are undertaking in their communities across the country. The categories include Carer of the Year, Young Real Hero of the Year, and a new award for Hero Animal of the Year.

At the end of each programme viewers are invited to vote for the nominees they believe most deserve to win a Scotland’s Real Heroes Award, with the overall winners being celebrated at a glittering televised awards ceremony later in the year.

Elizabeth Partyka, deputy director of channels at STV, said: “The time has come to highlight the outstanding work modestly carried out by the finalists of the series RBS – Finding Scotland’s Real Heroes. We look forward to celebrating the enormous achievement of all of the nominees. Each story tells of a remarkable accomplishment and is very moving – all the finalists are considered to be most deserving however it is the STV viewers that decide who will pick up an award.”

Chris Wilson, Royal Bank of Scotland’s Managing Director of Branch and Private Banking in Scotland, said: “Everyone at Royal Bank of Scotland is looking forward to finding out more about this year’s incredible finalists. We think it’s important to celebrate those people who go that extra mile for their community. Each one of the finalists is deserving of recognition and we are all looking forward to seeing who the public choose.”

FetLorFet-Lor, based on Crewe Road South, is Scotland’s oldest youth club and is a finalist in the RBS – Community Project of the Year category, while MS Therapy Centre champion Dean Reilly features among the finalists for the Scotland’s Real Heroes Courage Award.

Good luck to them both – the series first screens on STV on Friday 15 August at 8pm.

Bank interest in North Edinburgh News

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The NEN has received a cheque for £500 from The Royal Bank of Scotland. The banks’s charity committee agreed to support an application by  NEN board member Eddie Thorn.

Kevin Havelock, Regional Director for Corporate and Institutional Banking at Royal Bank of Scotland, explained: “Following the difficulties that RBS experienced in recent years we are looking to reconnect with the communities that we all live and work in.”

He went on: “We are very fortunate at RBS to have many staff who have been with us for twenty, twenty-five even thirty years and many of them are active in their communities. We established a system of grants to support local charities and community initiatives nominated by our staff.

“The Edinburgh Community Partnership Board has representation from every division of the bank – there are eleven people in all on the committee, each with an equal vote. We were delighted both with the volume and the great variety of nominations that came in, and we agreed our first round of grants in October. We are supporting a very broad spectrum of good causes, from supplying sports equipment to groups to helping local health charities.”

Royal Bank of Scotland will donate £100,000 in a rolling programme in the East of Scotland, and one of the first forty grateful recipients is North Edinburgh News.

North Edinburgh News treasurer Eddie Thorn said: “The Royal Bank of Scotland is to be commended for their wide contribution to local communities. It is particularly pleasing that they recognised all that the NEN strives to achieve, and we are very grateful for the bank’s generous support – it’s much appreciated.”

Kevin added: “We will be offering practical and sometimes even physical support, too – we want the charity to get more from the bank than just a cheque. Working with and providing support to the charity is a natural progression.”

NEN’s Eddie Thorn and RBS’ Kevin Havelock are pictured outside the NEN’s base at Edinburgh College Granton Campus.