Visitors to the Silverlake Automotive Recycling [Silverlake] stand at this year’s 63rd Curdridge Country Show, which took place on Saturday 16th July, found entertainment for all age groups.  A little different to your usual colouring activity, children had the opportunity to explore creative colouring with a salvage car acting as their real life canvas.  For the adults, there was the opportunity to test their dismantling skills by removing a coil pack and two spark plugs from a 2004 Vauxhall Corsa against the clock, with the fastest ten contestants featuring on a leader board on the stand.  The winner, Luke Beirne from Botley, Southampton is looking forward to his prize; the chance to crush a car at Silverlake’s Environment Agency compliant salvage and vehicle recycling site in Shedfield.   Funds raised from the day’s activities on the stand will go to Silverlake’s charity initiative UDonateacar.com

Established for 75 years, Silverlake is a large employer in the area and committed to giving back to the local community that has supported its growth over the decades.  In November last year the company relaunched its charity initiative UDondateacar.com, making it easy for people who sell a car to Silverlake to make a donation to community charities.  

UDonateacar.com makes it easy for people who sell their vehicle to Silverlake to donate as little, or as much as they want from the sale to support small, local charities helping to make a difference in the lives of vulnerable and disadvantaged people. Silverlake handles all the paperwork and transfers 100% of the donation to the scheme’s national charity partner, Global’s Make Some Noise, which provides grants to small charities that may otherwise be overlooked.  In the Southampton area, examples of charities benefiting from the grants include Abby’s Heroes supporting children, young people and their families with a cancer diagnosis and Yellow Door established to prevent and respond to domestic and sexual abuse.  Customers selling their car to Silverlake can also have it collected for free and the company handles all the DVLA paperwork, keeping everything hassle free. 

Allen Prebble, managing director at Silverlake said: “The Curdrige Country Show is a fantastic community event and we have supported it for many years.  Coming back after the pandemic, 2022 was great fun for everyone and we loved being part of it with the activities on our stand. We have committed to raising £20,000 in twelve months through UDonateacar.com and we are determined to hit that target.  Community charities play a vital role and never more so since the pandemic and with the impact of the latest cost of living rises.  Sadly they can sometimes get overlooked in favour of the bigger charities, so we are delighted to be able to generate some attention and fundraise for them through our partnership with Global.”