Sheltered scheme residents raise money for Help for
Heroes
Pensioners living at St Werburgh Court
have organised raffles, tea and toast mornings, and an open day and
together they have raised over £727.97 which they recently
presented to Steve Craddock, Kent Area Co-ordinator for ‘Help for
Heroes.’
St Werburgh Resident Violet Keys said,
"I’m really glad that mhs homes chose ‘Help for Heroes’ as their
charity this year because the service men and women that get
injured while fighting for this country are all to easily forgotten
about. I have been always involved with the army, because my
husband served with them, so I fully understand what their families
go through."
mhs homes sheltered scheme, St
Werburgh Court held a summer Faye on their front lawn with
assortment of stalls all raising money for the charity. There was
guess the weight of cake or the number of sweets in a jar. They
also had name the doll and a stand to buy cakes. Books, toys and
jewellery were on offer plus burgers and sausages.
Organiser Josie Gill said, "I’m over
the moon with the success of our fundraising. Everybody had worked
so hard to make the open day a success, the residents and their
families all contributed which made it a great day. We have tea and
toast every Wednesday and as silly as it sounds there might only be
8 or 10 of us there but even if we only raise £10....every little
helps!!! "
She added, "We would like to get to
£1000 before the end of the year, but we’ll see."
Josie and her neighbours have also transformed their
communal back garden into a vegetable patch which means that there
is always fresh vegetables to hand. These are picked daily and left
in the communal lounge for residents to pick up ....for a donation
for charity of course! Some of the ladies are also knitting hats to
send to Afghanistan to help keep the troops warm at night.
When asked what made them decide to do
something to help the forces the group said, "You hear about the
lads and lasses we lose on the television but there isn’t anything
about the suffering of the ones who come back injured or mentally
disturbed. If we have contributed enough to buy one false leg to
help an injured soldier get rehabilitated then it’s got to be
good,"
Steve Craddock, who received the
cheque on behalf of Help for Heroes explained about the
rehabilitation centre at Hedley Court. He added, "Help for Heroes
was formed to assist Hedley Court in raising money to support our
service men and women who were seriously injured in Afghanistan.
The charity started by organising a bike ride through all the World
War places and since then with the support of ordinary men and
women in this country the charity has raised £25.5 million in two
years. We are now helping to build a swimming pool and a gym to
help our boys and girls with their rehab. Donations like this
really help, not only because 98p in every £1 actually goes to the
charity which is run by volunteers like me but more importantly the
young soldiers that the country, the people they are fighting to
protect are right there behind them. It’s amazing that a small
group of people, from a small village community have made such a
massive difference."