A LLANGOLLEN Scout Group has been awarded £1,000 by The Pavers Foundation, the employee led charitable trust created by family-owned shoe retailer, Pavers.

The donation came after an employee at the Pavers store in Wrexham applied for the funding to support the group.

Founded by Catherine Paver in 1971, Pavers established the foundation in 2018 to enable charity giving by the business and its 1700 staff. Through the Foundation, Pavers has pledged £2.3m to good causes, which includes the employee grant applications, charities of the year and donations on behalf of the family.

Each Pavers staff member has the opportunity to put forward causes close to their heart which relate to health, education or community projects in their local area. A total of £73,800 has been awarded to the first round of 25 applications, with donations ranging from £500 to £11,000.

The donation to 1st Llangollen Scout Group helped the group purchase new tents for their regular expeditions and upcoming camping trips.

Sunil Malhotra, retail area manager at Pavers said: “It’s great to see Llangollen Scout Group benefit from The Pavers Foundation; the Foundation is doing a fantastic job supporting clubs and charities that mean something to colleagues and their communities.”

Joanne Gregory, beaver scout leader at 1st Llangollen Scout Group said: “Thank you to The Pavers Foundation for very kindly donating £1,000 to support our Scout Group in buying good quality expedition tents. We endeavour to offer a wide variety of activities to our 100+ Scout Group members at an affordable cost. This means that purchasing good quality, lightweight tents is very hard on our budget, but makes expeditions much more manageable and enjoyable. We are incredibly grateful for the donation.”

In 2018, Pavers acquired Jones Bootmaker and online shoe retailer, Herring Shoes. It has a portfolio of over 170 stores and staff under all three brands; Pavers, Jones Bootmaker and Herring Shoes will be involved with The Pavers Foundation. The Pavers Foundation can only accept grant applications that have been submitted by a Pavers Employee.