Cowboy hats raise over £7,000 for local charities at Balmoral Show

Seen in many of the photographs and reports from Balmoral Park, the hats were a huge success with show goers and now Spar can reveal that the red cowboy hats were working undercover to raise money for local charities.

Marie Curie, Spar’s charity partner, and the British Heart Foundation have both benefitted from donations of over £5,000 and over £2,000 respectively.

This means generous show goers raised over £7,000 when they visited Spar’s enjoy local marquee and donated to don the eye-catching hats during their day at Balmoral Park.

Bronagh Luke, Head of Corporate Marketing at Henderson Group, owners of the Spar brand in Northern Ireland said: “We were absolutely delighted to see so many people wearing our hats at The Show this year, but we’re even more delighted to reveal their secret mission and to have such a generous donation to give to Marie Curie and the British Heart Foundation.

“We will continue to raise funds for Marie Curie through our partnership with the Spar brand, including at the biggest ever Blooming Great Tea Party which took place at over 80 stores across Northern Ireland at the weekend.”

Conor O’Kane, Senior Partnership Manager at Marie Curie, added: “We are blown away by this donation by SPAR, generated from donations by visitors at the Balmoral Show. Our partnership is getting off to a fantastic start, and long may it continue!”

Jayne Murray, Head of British Heart Foundation Northern Ireland, said: “We had a fantastic four-days with SPAR at Balmoral Show where we gave CPR training to over 1,500 visitors, which was an invaluable contribution in itself. This donation will go a long way towards helping local people with heart conditions, and raising awareness of various initiatives throughout Northern Ireland.”