LADIES-only business club, The Athena Network (Blackwater Valley Region), has raised more than £1,100 for The Vine Day Centre in Aldershot.

Each year, The Athena Network, which has two groups in Farnham, one in Fleet and one in Camberley get together for a summer social event.

Alongside the event, the group host an auction of products and services donated by members to raise funds for a charity.

This year 28 of the group’s 82 members attended and were very generous with their donations and their bids, raising more than £1,100 for The Vine Day Centre in Aldershot.

Linda Huckle, regional director at The Athena Network, said: “This year we did our event on The John Pinkerton Canal Cruise boat.

“The members donated products and services, everything from £5 all the way to £250 and the members all then bid during the auction, and as a result we raised £1,125, we smashed £500 target.

“We just had a fun day, but at the same time wanting to raise money for The Vine Centre. I am absolutely delighted, it is such an amazing achievement and it’s just down to these people.

“If there’s any business women, who would like to try us out and come and see what we are about we would love to hear from you.

“Athena’s unique selling point is that it is not just networking, it is training and it developing members business skills.”

Linda met with Mary Webb from The Vine Day Centre to formally present the group’s donation.

Mary said: “We are absolutely delighted. We didn’t expect them to raise so much money and it just makes such a difference to us.

“At the moment, we have a couple of new projects going on, we’ve got Silver’s Group, which is our over 55’ club and we’ve also recently launched, Fine Dinning, which is a social enterprise scheme to get people back into re-employment.

“For 30 years, the Vine’s been known as the charity that supports homeless and vulnerable adults, but we actually do a lot more than that.

“We provide a job club, life skills, counselling, anger management, gambling and alcohol substance misuse support and we reach lots of different groups in the community. We are there for the community and not just one particular group.”

For more information about The Athena Network people can contact Linda at [email protected], on 07814235824, by visiting them online at www.theathenanetwork.co.uk/lindahuckle.