Over time, pennies donated at our participating retailers can add up to hundreds of thousands of pounds for charity. Over £200,000 has been raised so far for Domino’s Pizza’s main beneficiary charity Special Olympics Great Britain and hearing about the people helped by these donations makes us very happy here at Pennies.
Like the story of James Everest, a Special Olympics Great Britain athlete who has fought all over the world in judo competitions, despite his profound learning disability and behavioural problems.
After joining his foster brothers’ judo club as a young boy, James stuck at the sport despite losing every competition to other children. His enthusiasm inspired his club to move into coaching children with disabilities and they approached Special Olympics GB, who made them an official SOGB club. James’ foster parents took him and other athletes with learning disabilities all over Europe, competing in countries such as Holland, Belgium, and Finland, although it wasn’t until James was invited to go to China as part of the SOGB team did he bring home his first ever medal – a Gold one nonetheless!
Thanks to Special Olympics GB, James is one of the thousands of people with learning difficulties who have discovered new abilities and talents and become advocates and role models in their communities.
“James has gone on to inspire many parents and athletes at our club, becoming a junior referee for the British Judo Association refereeing both main stream and special needs competitions.” says James’ foster brother and SOGB Technical Advisor for Judo Paul Everest.
The thousands of pounds raised every week by Domino’s customers choosing to round up their orders helps SOGB put on training sessions and competitions, which are often the only opportunity that athletes have to interact with other people and feel part of their community.
Special Olympics GB are aiming to grow the programme from 8000 to 20,000 athletes by 2013 and the donations made through Domino’s are vital to achieve this goal. So next time you’re at the checkout at www.dominos.co.uk remember that you can help transform the lives of people like James by a simple click of the Donate button.
Read our news from February about Domino’s customers making one million donations to charity.