OXFORD BUS COMPANY ‘BRAND THE BUS’ COMPETITION WINNER ANNOUNCED

Oxford Bus company have confirmed GirlGuiding Oxfordshire as the winner of the hotly contested Brand the bus competition.

GirlGuiding Oxfordshire have been invited to work with Oxford Bus Company to design a bus wrap featuring the brand colours, logo and messages of the organisation. It was selected by a judging panel from a top ten group of good causes which had earned the most public votes from 37 original entries.

Helen & Douglas House, Sobell House and Chron’s and Colitis UK were highly commended by the judging panel, which included an external partner. Almost 6,000 members of the public voted for the good causes that entered and Oxford Bus Company announced it will run the competition annually.

Phil Southall, Oxford Bus Company Managing Director, said: “Congratulations to GirlGuiding Oxfordshire and to everyone who entered. It was a challenging task selecting the overall winner from so many worthy good causes and well-considered submissions. GirlGuiding Oxfordshire won the panel’s vote as they produced a superb video and demonstrated how it shares similar values to Oxford Bus Company. We’re looking forward to working with them on their design for a bus and will also look at how we can support additional good causes that were highly commended.

“The response to the competition has been overwhelming with so many entries and votes that we have decided to make it an annual contest to give more good causes the opportunity to raise their profile. One of our core values is being socially responsible and central to this is giving something back to the communities we serve, and this competition has proved to be a great way to do that.”

Ros Letellier, who submitted the entry for Girlguiding Oxfordshire said: "We’re so excited to have this amazing opportunity to promote Girlguiding in Oxfordshire and are enormously grateful to the Oxford Bus Company as well as all those who voted for us in the competition. There were many really worthy entries, so it's an honour to have won."

County Commissioner, Angela Peel, added: "Girlguiding as a youth organisation provides girls and young women with the opportunity to learn, discover, and grow, make lifelong friends and have a lot of fun. But it also goes deeper than that; we encourage our young members to take action on issues that matter to them, and work towards making positive change in society.

“Through this campaign with the Oxford Bus Company we hope we can attract even more members and adult volunteers to make Girlguiding an even bigger force for good in Oxfordshire."

The good causes that were voted into the top ten were Helen & Douglas House, Chron’s and Colitis UK, Blue Skye Thinking, SeeSaw, Girlguiding Oxford, Maggie’s Oxford, Shine Cancer Support, Sobell House, OASIS and Cyclox.