TODAY The Northern Echo launches a great new competition which could net your local pub or club thousands of pounds for a good cause.

The Northern Echo Pub and Club Community Challenge is a unique chance to involve the whole community in an easy to enter challenge.

The pub or club which wins the competition will be handed £5,000 to pass on to a good cause it has chosen to support.

There will also be £2,500 for the winning pub or club to celebrate its success in whatever way it chooses.

They may choose to throw a big party for everyone who has helped - or boost their charity's funds ever further.

There will also be two runners-up prizes of £1,000 each for a good cause.

Every day for the next six weeks a token will be appear in The Northern Echo, like the one printed above right.

All your pub or club has to do is collect as many tokens as it can over the next six weeks.

You can involve as many people as you like. You can contact local community groups, schools or scout groups and get them collecting the tokens.

It is up to you how you organise the token collections and how many people you want to involve.

Already, pubs around the North-East are signing up to be part of the fun.

Simon Gillespie, landlord of The Grand, at Bishop Auckland, said: "It's an excellent idea.

"At The Grand we try very hard to be part of the community, supporting different charities including the children's ward at Bishop Auckland General Hospital, so, anything we can do to support community projects like this we will."

The competition will be running until October 28, when the last token will appear.

All tokens should be handed in to a landlord or chairman, who will send them in to The Northern Echo with the pub name, address and telephone number.

The winner will be the pub or club which has collected the most tokens. If there is a tie then there will be a random draw to determine the winner.

Any pub or club which wants to enter must register using the form printed here. Registrations will be accepted at any time over the six weeks.

This is a marvellous opportunity to help a good cause in the community and have a great time in the process, so start collecting those tokens today