PUBS and clubs across the region are being urged to take part in a community challenge and raise money for a charity or good cause of their choice.

The six-week challenge will see a winning pub or club receive £5,000 for its chosen beneficiary, plus £2,500 to celebrate its own success.

The Northern Echo Pub and Club Community Challenge 2000 will involve the entrants - and their community - collecting as many tokens as possible during the course of the event.

Two runners-up prizes of £1,000, to go to the second or third placed pub or club's worthy cause, are also up for grabs.

As well as an opportunity to help a charity, repair a community centre or youth club, or send deserving children on a holiday, the winner will be able to help itself with its own winnings.

The challenge will be regularly featured in The Northern Echo, so entrants are asked to keep the paper informed of any unusual collection methods being employed in the push to win the top prize.

Pubs and clubs around the region are being contacted, asking them to take part, and landlords and managers can register their entry on the form which is printed below.

Posters, beer mats and leaflets are also available to those taking part to promote their community efforts.

Colin Tapping, deputy editor of The Northern Echo, said: "Pubs and clubs are a major part of most communities in the North-East.

"By taking part in The Northern Echo Pub and Club Community Challenge 2000, this is a chance to bring the community together in aid of a worthy cause and for their own benefit.