The Bridport News is giving local charities the chance to take a share in a massive £16,000 giveaway.

It could be that you volunteer or work for a charity, or you may want to support your favourite local charity by nominating it for a share of the £16,000 cash we’re making available to support great local courses.

Making a nomination couldn’t be easier – simply log on to www.bridportnews.co.uk/readerschoice and fill in your nomination form.

Or you can write to us, confirming the name and address of the charity you’d like to nominate and why to: Readers’ Choice Cash For Charity Nominations, Fleet House, Hampshire Road, Weymouth, DT4 9XD by the closing date of Sunday, September 11.

Once all nominations have been received, our Editor will select ten of the most deserving local charities to be featured in this year’s grants scheme.

We’re then going to put the power to allocate the cash back into your hands – for four weeks, readers will be invited to collect tokens from our newspapers which can then be sent to collection points across our region or posted.

Each token collected will then be used to allocate cash to the nominated charity – so if your favourite charity collects 50 per cent of all tokens collected, it will receive 50 per cent of the £16,000.

The cash is being provided by our parent company’s charitable arm: The Gannett Foundation. This year the Gannett Foundation will donate £128,000 to charities across the country.

Last year the Will Mackaness Trust, a Weymouth-based charity offering watersports opportunities to youngsters, won £3,452.33 thanks to votes from readers.

The charity wished to build on the legacy of the 2012 Olympic Games and gives financial support to youngsters who want to participate in water sports but wouldn't be able to ordinarily because of prohibitive costs.

The Trust used the money to buy some youth windsurfing foil boards and fund the cost of some courses.

Pam Govier, a trustee of the charity, set it up in 2008 in memory of her son Will Mackaness, water sports lover and former Head Boy at The Wey Valley School in Weymouth. Will very sadly passed away after fighting the most aggressive form of brain tumour at the age of 16.

Mrs Govier said: "We were delighted to learn that we had been awarded £3,452.33 from the Readers’ Choice.

"The very first courses set up by The Will Mackaness Trust, back in 2009, were for learning to windsurf and it has been wonderful to see the youngsters develop in confidence in what they can achieve in general, not just on the water, with some becoming instructors themselves and others competing in various windsurf competitions."