THE people of Westbury have responded to the plea to give generously in this year’s Poppy Appeal, with over £6,000 donated. A further £3,000 has been raised in Bratton.
To date, £6,416.24 has been collected in Westbury and that total is set to rise once donations for wreaths and cash donations come in.
Bill Prior, Poppy Appeal organiser for the Westbury Branch of the Royal British Legion said, “I think the response was very good. The total is for what we’ve got so far – we’ve still got a few more to come in. One of the biggest collections was at Morrisons, where we raised £1,222 in a week, and then there was the Co-op as well.”
People in Westbury turned out in their hundreds on Remembrance Sunday for the service at the war memorial, where £878.45 was collected.
Bill said, “I think people give to this because they know it goes to the job it’s for. On the whole we did pretty well this year. Whether it’s anything to do with Afghanistan, and with things on the news all the time and in people’s minds, I don’t know, but it could well have something to do with it.”
Staggering village result.
People in Bratton have dug deep into their pockets this year, with a further £3,000 raised in the Remembrance period.
Tony Hyde, Poppy Appeal organiser for the Bratton Branch of the RBL, said, “We had a most staggering result, it was brilliant. The Poppy Appeal this year has raised a total of £1,749.20 in the village house-to- house collection and a further £440.23 in the collections at The Duke, The Hillworth Stores, Pickleberry and Bratton Primary School. Thank you to all in the village for your generous support.
“The Poppy Appeal also received donations from St James Church, Bratton Baptist Chapel, Bratton Parish Council and Women’s Section RBL and others, to a total of £475. All of these, with gift aid added, will total about £3,000 for 2010’s collection.
“We thought last year was a good year and we’re well past that already. Over £300 will come from gift aid – the collectors were very careful about asking people if they would like to pay with gift aid.”
Further donations and functions, including The Duke’s fundraising weekend in October, have been raising money for the appeal in the last few months, bringing donations up to over £4,000.
Nationally, this year alone, the Royal British Legion will spend more than £72million by providing assistance to over 160,000 serving and ex-Service Armed Forces personnel and their families, as well as campaigning on their behalf. 2010 also saw the culmination of the Legion’s campaign to improve the compensation scheme for wounded personnel, and this came on the heels of the introduction of a free, independent legal advice scheme for bereaved families.
2011 will see the 90th anniversary of the Royal British Legion and it aspires to raise £90million which will include money to provide for two major new projects.
The Legion has committed £25million over 10 years to cover the cost of running centres which will place it at the forefront of caring for the wounded of current conflicts. This will provide for the operation of Personnel Recovery Centres across the country.
The Legion will be in partnership with other Armed Forces charities, including Help for Heroes which is also investing £20million on the construction of purpose-built Personnel Recovery Centres in the towns of Colchester, Tidworth, Catterick and Edinburgh. The centres will be operated by the British Army in partnership with The Royal British Legion for personnel from all three services. The first of these, in Colchester, is expected to open in spring 2011.
Part of the £25million will also go towards the funding of a challenge centre. This will provide adventure training and sporting activity, delivered by a dedicated ‘Battle Back’ team, to challenge the injured and act as a ‘recovery accelerator’.
