Call for woolly hats to mark bumper birthday celebration

The Big Knit is 10 years young!

For a decade, budding milliners up and down the country have been supporting Age Cymru and innocent’s Big Knit by knitting funky little hats as part of the charity’s Spread the Warmth campaign.

This year Age Cymru Sir Gâr is calling on nimble-fingered knitters in Carmarthenshire to whip out their wool and needles and help create little woolly hats.
Knitters are being asked to flex their creative muscles and knit little woolly hats which will adorn innocent smoothie bottles in stores nationwide from November.

For each be-hatted smoothie sold, innocent will give a donation to the Spread the Warmth campaign, helping to fund national and local winter projects.

Age Cymru Sir Gâr has been tasked with knitting 400 hats by end September 2013 and needs knitters of all ages to help make this a reality.
Ann Dymock Chief Officer at Age Cymru Sir Gâr said: “People in Carmarthenshire have been supporting The Big Knit for a number of years now showing they can really help older people during winter. Winter can be a really difficult time of year for many older people, so it’s really important that local knitters get behind The Big Knit to help raise funds for vital local winter projects.

"We need knitters of all ages in Carmarthenshire to help us reach our goal of 400 miniature hats so that we can run services such as our winter befriending where we pop in to check on an older person during the winter months or our benefits support work making sure people have enough money to heat their homes during the winter."
James Peach, of innocent drinks, said: “To celebrate The Big Knit’s 10th birthday this year we’re planning our biggest ever Big Knit. It’s a fantastic way to get creative, knit a little hat to adorn a smoothie bottle and raise money to help older people stay warm in winter. We’re massively grateful to everyone who joins in and helps make this year’s campaign a huge success.”
Knitters can contact Age Cymru Sir Gâr to get free hat patterns which are suitable for beginners all the way to the expert!

For those who don’t fancy making a hat themselves, wool and needles can be donated to Age Cymru Sir Gâr at 8 Murray Street, Llanelli Carmarthenshire SA15 1DZ to help others reach the target
For more information on The Big Knit contact Age Cymru Sir Gâr on 01554 784080 or e-mail info@agecymrusirgar.org.uk Please send completed hats to Age Cymru Sir Gâr at 8 Murray Street, Llanelli, Carmarthenshire SA15 1DZ.

About Age Cymru Sir Gâr
Age Cymru Sir Gar covers the whole of Carmarthenshire and provides various services supporting older people to live independent lives.
Website www.agecymru.org.uk/sirgar 

About innocent
Launched 13 years ago, innocent is the number one smoothie brand in the UK. We sell over two million pure fruit smoothies each week in 15,000 outlets - everywhere from Boots to Sainsbury’s to your local deli. Our range has expanded to include: smoothies in little bottles and big cartons; smoothies and juice for kids; a refreshing not-from-concentrate juice range; and veg pots, a range of quick and tasty meals. The team has grown from three to 250 people who work across Europe (with products are available in 15 different countries). We turn over £200 million each year.
As a business we want to make it easy for people to do themselves some good. And to leave the planet a little bit better than we found it. This is reflected in everything we do from the use of green electricity at Fruit Towers, to sourcing fruit from places that go the extra mile in terms of looking after the people that work on the farms, and the environment. As of 2006 we are proud to say that all our bananas come from Rainforest Alliance accredited farms. We donate 10% of profits to charity, mainly to the innocent foundation, which funds NGOs in the countries where fruit is sourced.

Media contact: Ann Dymock, Chief Officer
Telephone: 01554 784080 or e-mail a.dymock@agecymrusirgar.org.uk