FOR more than a decade Dunmow and District Community Fund (DDCF) has been supporting causes and creating opportunities in the town. The organisation, which is made possible thanks to generous sponsorship from businesses in the area, has been closely invol

FOR more than a decade Dunmow and District Community Fund (DDCF) has been supporting causes and creating opportunities in the town.

The organisation, which is made possible thanks to generous sponsorship from businesses in the area, has been closely involved with a large number of projects in the 14 years since its inception.

Tom McGuirk, one of the fund's founders, said: "In the early days the fund developed from work I was doing for the Spastics Society, now known as Scope.

"Some groups in the community were asking if there was something we could do for them, and we decided that we should establish the fund.

"We've worked on dozens of projects. We raised money for the youth project at Barnston Football Club, working closely with former Dunmow mayor David Wright, who was a great community man.

"We also worked with Tesco to raise money for equipment at the cricket club - and another project that we initiated, with the help of the Dunmow Broadcast, was the Dunmow Majorettes."

The focus of the DDCF is now switching to the elderly in the Dunmow area, under the banner of Grey Matters.

Mr McGuirk said: "There is a very strong community base in Dunmow, with many organisations all doing great work.

"We want to do what we can to tackle possible isolation among the elderly. We would like other organisations to get involved with the project.

"Every day we hear about cases of abuse, or neglect, or isolation in the elderly, and we want to do what we can to combat that.

"We're not suggesting that goes on in Dunmow, but in a growing elderly community, prevention is always better than cure."

One of the ways in which the DDCF is helping the elderly is by holding free afternoons of bingo on the first Wednesday of every month, in Dunmow Day Centre.

Mr McGuirk said: "We hope to organise more free projects like this in the future; we don't want money to be preventing any elderly people from getting involved with the community.

"It's very important that we bring the elderly back into the mainstream community to fight isolation - let the community give something back to its elderly members."

The DDCF's biggest fund-raising event is an open golf tournament, set to tee off at 8am on September 7 at Rivenhall Oaks Golf Centre.

Breakfast and lunch are included and there will be a prize-giving, an auction and a raffle.

Entry is £180 per four-player team by calling.Tom McGuirk on 01371 874833.