A STANFORD-le-Hope woman has been celebrating after winning £500 in a competition designed to bring borough residents together.

With support from Thurrock Council, Thurrock CVS launched the OurRoad project during the early stages of the coronavirus lockdown.

The project was seen as a way of connecting to local communities and neighbourhoods during the Coronavirus lockdown and its major initiative has been a competition called Piecing Thurrock Back Together competition launched in July 2020.

It involved collecting 20 postcards representing each ward in Thurrock plus five gold special edition cards. All the postcards were taken by local photographers and tried to capture an alternative Thurrock scene.

Around 145,000 cards were sent out or delivered across the borough by a team of volunteers.

The idea was that residents would interact and share the postcards, building up a complete collection to submit and win a prize.

Around 50 people took part in the competition and this week a winner was drawn at random from the submitted returns. Mayor Cllr Terry Piccolo randomly selected the winner and said: "Lockdown has been such an isolating time for many, so it's been really inspiring to see so many residents connecting and working together.

"For many the competition has been a positive distraction to focus on celebrating the beauty of our borough at such a challenging time – many have expressed how much they've enjoyed collecting the postcards as keepsakes.

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"Throughout lockdown Thurrock's community spirit has been truly inspiring and these community projects have been a fun way to continue building upon the already exceptional sense of community that exists in Thurrock."

The draw revealed lucky winner Martine Griggs from Stanford-le-Hope who said "Wow, thank you so much, that's made my day! I've loved taking part in the competition and seeing the lovely views of our borough. It's been lots of fun swapping postcards with my work friends and neighbours and visiting the pick-up points. I'm unsure how I will be spending my winnings, but with the lockdown pandemic I'm really looking forward to treating myself."

Thurrock CVS marketing and communications officer Natasha Campan said: "We had over 100 residents taking part in the project through volunteering. The postcards were delivered to other households and pick up points by our community volunteers free of charge.

"We had had at least 50 people taking part in the competition as far as we can tell.

"Many were collecting just their own area and two local clubs collected the postcards for fun to use for scavenger hunts when lockdown is completely eased and they can meet again."

If you're interested in finding out how to become more active in your community or would like to register as an OurRoad volunteer the CVS would be delighted to hear from you! Email [email protected]

Details of how you can connect to your community can be found on the Stronger Together Thurrock directory here.