TWO Somerset charities will win a share of £20,000 from your local Newsquest newspapers – and how much they receive will be decided by YOU.

The parent company of Newsquest - publisher of your County Gazette, Bridgwater Mercury, Chard & Ilminster News and Burnham & Highbridge Weekly News - has a charitable arm, the Gannett Foundation, which is providing £125,000 in cash to support local charities across the country.

We have been given a £20,000 share to give away to charities in Wales and the south west – and we asked readers to nominate their favourite local charities to be considered for a grant

Two county charities, Chard Museum and St Giles Animal Rescue, were selected after being nominated by our readers, along with six others from the south west and Wales.

Readers are now invited to collect tokens from our newspapers, which can then be sent to collection points across our region or posted.

Each token collected will be used to allocate cash to the nominated charity – so if your favourite charity collects 50% of all to tokens collected, it will receive 50% of the £20,000.

After Chard Museum was nominated, Howard Bailey, the museum’s communications and marketing coordinator and a trustee of the charity, said: “We are incredibly pleased and, in a sense, proud.

“It’s really positive.”

The museum, which opened in 1970, is housed in a converted 16th-century listed building.

The museum’s exhibits tell the story of the town and its local area including geology, the fire of 1577, the Monmouth Rebellion, the Lace Riots, and the rise and fall of industrial Chard.

A grant such as the ones allocated by Readers’ Choice Cash for Charity would help the museum “keep on driving local history and take it out to local people”.

The money from the Gannett Foundation could help create ‘history in a box’, a scheme that would collate items and clothing from different times in Chard’s history.

This would allow the museum to take artefacts to schools and into the community, helping showcase the town’s past and give local people give local people a more interactive experience.

“We would like to thank anyone who gives us a token and say, ‘come and visit the museum’,” Howard added. “We’re open all year.”

St Giles Animal Rescue, based in Wrantage, near Taunton, has also been nominated by the public.

The charity takes in and cares for stray dogs rescued in West Somerset, covering two council areas: Somerset West and Taunton, and South Somerset.

If the dogs are not re-claimed by their owners within the legal statutory time, St Giles re-homes them on behalf of the councils.

The charity ensures that all dogs are vaccinated, neutered, and microchipped before they are sent to their forever homes.

St Giles also looks after cats and dogs on behalf of the RSPCA South East and South West branch and help re-home them.

The centre will also help other animals in need when their owners are no longer able to care for them.

Jan Brookes, vice chair, said: “St Giles Animal Rescue are absolutely delighted to have been nominated by the Gannett Foundation to receive a share of £20,000 alongside eight local charities in the Readers Choice Cash for Charity campaign.

“We are a small charity doing a large job and we are grateful for any donations however small. All monies received goes directly for the care of our rescued animals and without the generosity of people like yourselves, our volunteers and followers we simply would not be able to continue.

“It is especially nice to be nominated as a local charity. We have had and still continue to have support, from the County Gazette on a regular basis.

“We managed to remain open during the Covid crisis and continued to rescue and re home animals on a regular basis. However, since the lock-down ended and everyone returned to work we have seen an enormous number of, especially dogs, given up by their owners. At this present moment in time we are full and our costs have risen accordingly.”

Token collection boxes for Chard Museum can be found in Somerset Media Solutions on Chard High Street and in Emery Newsagents in Holyrood Street.

Boxes for St Giles Animal Rescue can be found at Willowbrook Garden Centre (near Wellington), Jollyes pet shop (Gallagher Retail Park, Bridgwater), The Coal Orchard (Taunton), North Curry Post Office, Pets at Home (Taunton), St Giles Animal Rescue and The Emporium, in Wellington.