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Community Recap 2024

At Buckinghamshire Building Society we consider it a tremendous privilege to support our community. We want to take a moment to reflect on all we were able to accomplish with your help in 2024!

We kicked off the year by extending our support to the publication of a book that commemorates the efforts of those who lived in our home of Chalfont St Giles and fought in the First World War. It was an honour to attend the launch event in December and we were amazed by the extensive research undertaken to produce the book and we hope it preserves this important history for years to come.  Whilst we’re on the topic of books, we also sponsored the Chalfont St Giles and Jordans Literary Festival, attended by a diverse lineup of authors writing books about everything from fashion design to crossword setting.

We’re thrilled to have been able to get involved with numerous community events and once again we were the main sponsor for the Chalfont St Giles street party, which ran in place of the Village Show this year.  Most recently, we helped to light up our local village as we sponsored the Christmas Tree Lighting Ceremony and gave the elves a helping hand by adding a few toys to their goodie bags!

To top off all the work we’ve been involved with on our doorstep, we’re proud to be the shirt sponsor of our local Cricket Club. This feels especially exciting as they celebrated their 150th anniversary in 2024.

We have also had the pleasure of supporting various events organised by our local schools including our local Infant School and Nursery’s annual Strawberry Fayre. Additionally, we supported Seer Green preschool as they hosted a fundraising comedy night, which was attended by a number of incredible comedians including Shazia Mirza and Dominic Holland. We’re incredibly lucky at Buckinghamshire Building Society that our colleagues really embrace community spirit! Here’s just a taste of how some of our colleagues used their volunteering days.  A group of colleagues from across the Society banded together to transform some of the classrooms at Chalfont St Giles Infant School: a lick of paint helped to brighten everything up. Our Savings team were involved with the local Poppy Appeal, raising over £1,500 across their volunteering days! And, to wrap up the year, colleagues got into the festive spirit as we held a Christmas Jumper Day in aid of ‘Together Against Poverty’, a campaign run by Heart of Bucks to help provide funding to individuals and families struggling with the daily cost of living.

One charity that offers invaluable assistance to our local secondary schools, is the financial education charity, WizeUp. With Mike Flack at the helm, this organisation fills a crucial gap by providing school age students with sessions on topics ranging from student finance to income tax and credit cards to CV writing. One of the students who participated in one of WizeUp’s sessions this year said "The session was amazing, really interesting and interactive and I enjoyed it a lot". We have supported WizeUp for many years and continue to be impressed by the positive impact they have on students throughout Buckinghamshire and beyond!

The Bucks Business First Awards provided us with an opportunity to discover a variety of local businesses and the extraordinary people behind them. We had the honour of sponsoring the ‘Excellence in Customer Experience’ award, which recognises organisations that maintain exceptional customer service as part of their culture.  Following a rigorous selection process Ashridge Home Care won this category, a testament to their commitment and service towards their customers.

During April’s AGM, Age UK Buckinghamshire received a donation of £5,000 from the Society, as voted for by our members. This charity operates throughout our local community, offering their support as people navigate the challenges and demands of aging.  And as always we made a donation to Chiltern Food Bank for every online AGM vote made by our members. 

Our friends at Heart of Bucks have been an incredible support for us this year as we launched our brand-new Bucks Community Fund! Entirely designed and led by colleagues from across the Society, this fund gave us all a chance to discover more about some of the incredible organisations that are dedicated to improving the wellbeing of young people in a variety of ways. After a rigorous evaluative process and much deliberation, we were thrilled to present Brighter Futures Together CIC with a grant of £5,000. This is an incredible organisation that works with children, young people and their wider support networks to support young people's mental health and wellbeing through sector consulting, advisory services, and through running its own innovative youth-focused programs. This was undoubtedly one of the highlights of 2024, and we are eager to dive back into the process in 2025! If you’d like to learn more about the fund and Brighter Futures Together CIC, please click here.

With lots more to come in 2025, and as we celebrate the 100th year of our branch being in Chalfont St Giles, we’re thrilled to be able to continue to support our local community and the organisations in Buckinghamshire that are so devoted to helping others. We’re hugely grateful to all our community partners for their endless support and dedication to making it all possible.