An awards night the Eagles Community Arena raised more than £2,000 for our Eagles Community Foundation’s Hardship Fund.

The purpose of this new ring-fenced fund is to get as many children as possible playing basketball across the North East to stay healthy, keep active, have fun, make friends and develop as young people.

The 2019 CIPD North East Awards took place at the ECA this Summer with companies including Greggs, Caterpillar, Nissan and Connect Health all in attendance and winning prizes for their Human Resources and development work.

More than 500 people attended the event, making it the biggest awards dinner hosted at our arena yet and the largest CIPD event held in the region.

Fundraising on the night brought in more than £2,092.37, which was presented to the foundation specifically for the Hardship Fund by Elouise Leonard-Cross, co-chair of the CIPD North East branch.

Our Eagles Community Foundation chief executive Sam Blake said: “A huge thank you to everyone at the CIPD for holding their prestigious dinner here at our Eagles Community Arena and for donating the raffle prize money to our hardship fund.

“We now have over £3,100 ring-fenced, which has grown from this original fundraising by the CIPD and their members thanks to some more generous donations.

“This money will be available to everyone within the Eagles programme to request financial support to make sure there are no barriers to participating in basketball under our roof. A huge step forward for our arena to take within eight months of opening.”

Parents and guardians can now apply for this financial hardship funding using the downloadable form.