The Blossom Charity celebrates strong start to the year

The Blossom Charity has broken a Guinness World Record, received thousands of pounds of funding and has also been announced as Community Partner of the OVO Energy Women’s Tour cycle race

A small charity based in Eye, Suffolk, is celebrating a bumper start to 2019 after breaking a Guinness World Record, winning funding grant worth thousands of pounds and becoming the Community Partner for a major national sporting event.

The Blossom Charity – which aims to inspire and increase confidence in women and young people in the region through coaching, mentoring, makeovers and style consultancy – has been announced as the first ever Community Partner of the OVO Energy Women’s Tour cycle race. The organisers of the sporting event, SweetSpot, will be supporting the charity’s ‘Blossom Road Trip’ fundraiser which is taking place the same week as the Women’s Tour (10^th – 15^th June 2019). The challenge will see the Blossom team follow the same route across the country as the cyclists, delivering empowering workshops to 500 women over the course of six days.

Bridget McIntyre, founder of the Blossom Charity, said: “We’re delighted to be announced as the first ever Community Partner of the OVO Energy Women’s Tour. Every year we organise a fundraiser to challenge the team and this year the ‘Blossom Road Trip’ is all about giving back. We’ve been running our workshops for eight years, helping women be their best whether that’s by increasing their confidence or developing new skills and we want to share our programmes with women right across the country. Our road trip will be shadowing the route of the Women’s Tour and the support and exposure from the race will be invaluable to us as a small charity.”

In addition to becoming Community Partner for the tour, the Blossom Charity kick started the year by finding out that it has officially set a Guinness World Record for the World’s Longest Fashion Show after organising a marathon 30-hour fundraising event. The team had always hoped the event was going to set a new record and they finally had their success confirmed in January. The epic fashion showcase raised £24,000 for the charity when it took place at Woolverstone Hall near Ipswich in October 2017. The event featured 1,080 individual outfits and 150 volunteers, including 66 models who walked a total of 104 miles along a 58-metre catwalk. Even more impressively, The Blossom Charity took the world record from US giants Cotton Inc and PEOPLE magazine.

Then in February the organisation won £5,000 from the Aviva Community Fund for their ‘This Is Me’ programme which is designed specifically for young people aged 13-15 who are struggling to find a sense of direction in their lives. The programme aims to support their wellbeing, confidence and self-esteem. Bridget adds: “We might be a small charity based in the Suffolk countryside, but we have had a truly remarkable start to the year. Receiving the money from the Aviva Community Fund was absolutely fantastic and it will help us to continue to support young people and give them the skills to make the most of the opportunities that will come their way. And to also think that we were able to beat two huge American organisations to become Guinness World Record holders – it’s incredible and I’m so grateful to everyone who took part in the fashion show and who has supported the Blossom Charity over the years.”

The Blossom Charity is the sister organisation to the community interest company, dream on, which is also based in Eye and works with women in business and individuals to support growth and personal development.

For more information about The Blossom Charity and dream on, visit theblossomcharity.co.uk or dream-on-suffolk.com.

Pictured: The Blossom Charity team with their Guinness World Record for the World’s Longest Fashion Show. (L-R) Katie Nice, Clare Jackson, Jackie Ordish, Amanda Church, Cheryl Mitchell, Bridget Mcintyre.

Photo credit: The Blossom Charity.