The Big Lottery Fund and Heritage Lottery Fund are handing out grants to commemorate the role played by those on the home front during the war years.

Groups in Wearside and Teesside are among those to benefit from the Home Front Recall scheme.

Events will include concerts, trips and reunion dinners.

The City of Sunderland Millennium Orchestral Society has been awarded a grant of �20,000 for a range of musical events as part of their Music for All community project. It will include four concerts and a number of visit to residential homes.

War-time memories

Organiser Rupert Hanson said: "This lottery support is tremendous for us. We work in many of the poorer areas of Sunderland and this allows us to put on popular events, which reach the ordinary folk who normally can't attend.

"It also commemorates the efforts of the war veterans."

The Royal Northumberland Fusiliers (All Ranks) Club, in Washington, has been given nearly �9,000 for a trip to the Cenotaph on Remembrance Sunday. It will also put the money towards two reunion dinners.

St Cuthbert's Ladies Choir, in Sunderland, will use its �1,000 reward to host a number of D-Day music events around the area.

All Our Yesterdays History and Writers Group, from Hartlepool, have been awarded a grant of just over �5,000 for a commemorative event. The project will include a celebration evening and the production of a book of local people's war-time memories.