National Lottery Awards 2010 - Cast Your Vote

Hearts and Minds and The Screen Machine Mobile Cinema are amongs the nine Scottish Lottery projects going head to head with other Lottery-funded organisations from across the UK in the semi-finals of The National Lottery Awards 2010.
 
The National Lottery Awards are an annual search to find the UK’s favourite Lottery-funded projects. All of the projects in the running have already received Lottery funding and the Awards celebrate how they have put that money to good use. Scots are being urged to show their support by casting a vote to help local organisations make it through to the finals.

Hearts & Minds are competing for Best Voluntary/Charity Project in association with Woman magazine.  Funded by the Scottish Arts Council Edinburgh-based charity Hearts & Minds works with sick children and elderly people with dementia across Scotland to raise a smile and encourage communication, interaction and laughter through two arts-in-health programmes. Clowndoctors works specifically with children and Elderflowers works with dementia sufferers. 

Screen Machine Mobile Cinema is competing for Best Arts Project.  Initially funded by the Scottish Arts Council the Screen Machine tours to 23 remote Scottish locations across the Highlands, Islands and Argyll and screens the latest films to communities without access to a full-time cinema, aiming to bring local people together through a shared love of film.  Screen Machine is operated by Regional Screen Scotland and is financially supported by Scottish Screen, Highlands and Islands Enterprise, Comhairle Nan Eilean Siar, and North Ayrshire Council.
 
Other semi-finalists from Scotland are: 

• Bumblebee Conservation Trust, Stirling – competing for Best Environment Project
• Clydesdale Community Initiatives, South Lanarkshire – competing for Best Health Project in association with iVillage.co.uk
• Hawick High School Creative Fashion Project, Scottish Borders – competing for Best Education Project
• Maggie’s Lanarkshire – competing for Best Health Project in association with iVillage.co.uk
• The Nelson Monument and Time Ball, Edinburgh – competing for Best Heritage Project 
• South Glasgow Bookstart – competing for Best Education Project
• Sportworx, South Lanarkshire – competing for Best Sport Project 

The winning project in each of the seven categories will receive national recognition on a star-studded BBC 1 TV show later this year and, in addition to the Lottery funding they have already been awarded, will receive a £2,000 cash prize[1] to spend on their project.
 
This year’s National Lottery Awards are supported by actress Fay Ripley, who attended last year’s Awards ceremony, which was broadcast on BBC1. She says: “Lottery players raise £25 million every week, which funds projects and organisations that are making a difference to people and communities across Scotland and the rest of the UK. The National Lottery Awards recognise the amazing talent and hard work of the people involved in running Lottery-funded projects, so please get behind these projects and vote to give them your support.”
 
About The National Lottery Awards
The National Lottery Awards recognise the difference that Lottery-funded projects – both big and small – make to local communities, and celebrate the achievements of the people behind them. The Awards have seven categories – each reflecting an area of Lottery funding: sport; heritage; arts; environment; education; health (in association with iVillage.co.uk) and voluntary/charity (in association with Woman magazine).
 
Voting for the semi-finals started at 9am on Tuesday 1 June and ends at midday on Friday 18 June. For further information or to cast a vote go to the National Lottery Website.  
 
The three projects in each category with the highest number of votes will go through to the final round of public voting in July.

Notes to editors

Further information on the two Scottish Arts Council funded semi-finalist projects and voting numbers:

• Hearts & Minds, Scotland-wide – competing for Best Voluntary/Charity Project in association with Woman magazine
  Edinburgh-based charity Hearts & Minds works with sick children and elderly people with dementia across Scotland to raise a smile and encourage communication, interaction and laughter through two arts-in-health programmes. Clowndoctors works specifically with children and Elderflowers works with dementia sufferers. Lottery grants have been used to develop the programmes, create special activities for children with physical and learning disabilities, raise awareness and cover the two programmes’ running costs. The project received Lottery funding from the Scottish Arts Council and Awards for All. To register your vote for Hearts & Minds call 0844 6865082 or log on to the Lottery Good Causes website.
• Screen Machine Mobile Cinema, Highlands, Islands and Argyll – competing for Best Arts Project
  Lottery funding helped build the Screen Machine - an enormous articulated lorry, which expands into fully functional 80-seater digital cinema. The Screen Machine tours to 23 remote Scottish locations and screens the latest films to communities without access to a full-time cinema, aiming to bring local people together through a shared love of film. The project received Lottery funding from the Scottish Arts Council. To register your vote for the Screen Machine Mobile Cinema call 0844 686 8598 or log on to the Lottery Good Causes Website.  
• Calls cost 5p from a BT landline. Calls from other networks may vary, calls from mobiles could cost considerably more. Callers are advised to check with their telephone network provider to be certain of the cost. No profit will be made from the cost of the phone vote by the National Lottery Promotions Unit or The National Lottery
• All voting is independently adjudicated and verified by Electoral Reform Services
• For the third year running the voluntary/charity category is sponsored by Woman magazine. Woman is the number one variety-packed women’s weekly. It delivers a modern mix of hot celebrity news, juicy TV insider gossip, compelling real life stories, body confident fashion and beauty, and an up-to-the-minute lifestyle section. Woman is published by IPC Media
• The Best Health Project category is this year sponsored by iVillage.co.uk. iVillage.co.uk is one of the leading online information networks for women. A website for women, it focuses on the issues that matter most to women and offers interactive services, expert advice, information and a vital support network
• Since the Lottery began in 1994, over £2 billion has been invested in Good Causes in Scotland and over 340,000 grants have been made across the UK
• For more information on the Awards or Lottery-funded projects log on to the Lottery Good Causes Website.

Semi- Finals - There are a total of 70 projects in the semi-finals - 10 in each of the seven categories. The public can vote from 9am on 1 June and any vote cast before midday on 18 June will be counted.  The three projects with the most votes in each category will go through to the final round of public voting

Finals - There will be a total of 21 projects in the finals – three in each of the seven categories. The public can vote from 9am on 26 July and any vote cast before midday on 13 August will be counted.  There will be only one winner in each category. The seven winners will be announced during a special BBC 1 television programme transmitted later in the year.

Contact email(s)

media.office@scottisharts.org.uk

Issued by: Scottish Arts Council