Quinn’s SPAR in Cookstown recently held a fun day for shoppers to celebrate two major milestones.

The store marked 15 years of serving their local community, while celebrating a fundraising milestone of £100,000. Through ongoing support for a number of local charities and initiatives, including SPAR NI’s charity partner Marie Curie, the store has raised a total of £100,000 since opening in 2011.

The store, which is owned and operated by Martina Kilpatrick, Mary Quinn and Eilish Canavan, opened with 15 employees in 2011 and now employs nearly double that number, with a team of 28 staff from the local area, including Marie Creighton, Louise McGuckin, Maureen Mallon and Attracta Marron who have all spent 15 years as part of the store team.

Since opening, Quinn’s SPAR has become a central hub within the local community. The store supports many local sports clubs including Cookstown Fr. Rocks GFC and Cookstown Youth Football Club. They also sponsor the annual Rock Fun Run and provide ongoing support for local charities, including SPAR NI’s charity partner, Marie Curie.

Through fundraising efforts by the local community, an Automated External Defibrillator (AED) is also installed outside the store. The lifesaving equipment is maintained by Quinn’s SPAR and is available for the community 24/7 even when the store is not open.

To celebrate the milestone anniversary, the store hosted a community fun weekend earlier this month, which invited local families to enjoy lucky dips, face painting and a guest appearance from Bluey for the kids, while shoppers played the SPAR Spinner to be in with a chance of winning store vouchers, hampers and gift vouchers for local businesses. There was also a raffle to win £500 of oil stamps, plus shoppers were treated to samples of lemon drizzle cake and raspberry and white chocolate scones from French Village.

Local businesses including R. Hutchinson’s Butchers, Hutton’s Butchers, PG Chips, Island Salads, Summer Garden Foods, French Village Bakery and many more generously supported Quinn’s 15th anniversary celebrations.

The store’s celebrations coincided with SPAR NI’s annual Blooming Great Summer fundraiser which saw SPAR stores across Northern Ireland bringing sunshine in-store with a sea of yellow to fundraise for Marie Curie through a variety of events including in-store tea parties, raffles, bake sales, guessing games and giveaways. Over £3,500 was raised from Quinn’s anniversary celebrations, which will be donated to Marie Curie as part of the Blooming Great Summer activity.

Kathy Danton, store manager, commented, “We’re incredibly proud to be celebrating our 15-year anniversary and our fundraising milestone. As a community focused store, it was important to us to celebrate alongside our shoppers, and to raise money for such a deserving charity while doing so. We’re proud to be a place where every member of our community feels welcome and we love welcoming all our shoppers with a friendly face and a chat. We see our shoppers and team as part of the Quinn family and we wish to thank them for their continued support. We look forward to many more years serving the community from Quinn’s SPAR.”

Paddy Doody, Sales and Marketing Director at Henderson Group which owns the SPAR brand in Northern Ireland, commented, “We wish to congratulate the entire team at Quinn’s SPAR on their 15th anniversary and this amazing fundraising milestone. They are such an integral part of their local community and it’s great to see them celebrating alongside their shoppers. We wish them every success for years to come.”

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