St Ives charity present first community award to local company

Dreamdrops, Cambridgeshire Community Services NHS Trust’s charity, were delighted to present their first-ever Community Award to idash Ltd.

This new award recognises individuals, families and organisations who go above and beyond in either helping to raise funds for ‘Dreamdrops’ or providing exceptional support to the charity.

The help Dreamdrops receives can go a long way to relieve the stress of a child being nursed either in a hospital or in the local community in difficult times for the whole family.

During the second Covid lockdown last year, ‘Dreamdrops’ decided to organise what turned into a whole community project to provide computers and tablets to schoolchildren across Huntingdonshire who were having to be “home schooled” during the pandemic but did not have access to I.T. equipment.

Working with local partners idash Ltd and Cambs-Pat UK Ltd, along with local community support groups across the market towns in Huntingdonshire and members of the public, Dreamdrops were able to provide laptops and tablets to all the schools that urgently needed them.

Anne-Marie Hamilton, Chairman of Dreamdrops, said: “Whilst we are incredibly grateful to everyone who pulled together to make the project such a success, one company stood out.

"Not only did they provide the project with engineers working on it full time for three months, but they also salvaged spare parts from redundant machines that could not be updated and re-used them to repair and upgrade other machines, thus saving the whole project thousands of pounds.

"In addition, they freely provided technical help and expertise and were constantly on hand to give support when needed. 

“Their commitment to supporting local children with their schooling at such a difficult time for so many was overwhelming, and this is what earned idash Ltd the first Dreamdrops Community Award.”

Mick Marks, Managing Director, idash, said: “idash is very proud to receive the very first Dreamdrops Community Award. idash received the award in recognition of community service and supporting the Dreamdrops Children's Charity.

“idash joined forces with Dreamdrops and took the hundreds of laptops and devices provided by the public and local businesses, carried out the relevant data protection actions, refurbished the devices and made them usable again.

“This is a lovely surprise, and it is a fantastic feeling to receive the first of these awards.”