THE generous Redditch community has raised more than £40,000 for the Royal British Legion’s Poppy Appeal.
The grand total of £40,036.57 was announced this week by Gerry Marsden, who took over running of the appeal in Redditch from Peter Styler last year. Mr Styler ran the Poppy Appeal for six decades and this year took on the collections at Marks & Spencer in the Kingfisher.
Mr Marsden said many groups and businesses supported the appeal this year, including Tracy Murphy and the teams at Asda, manager Tom Balray and Cathy and staff at Sainsbury’s, staff and volunteers from Morrisons, and the team at Marks & Spencer.
He also praised staff at the town’s branch of Lloyds bank, Emily Shotbolt and staff at Redditch Hockey, Cricket and Rugby Club, local groups of cubs, scouts, Joy Glover and Redditch’s own 37th Signal Regiment all joined in with the campaign.
“We would like to give special thanks to the Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter Day Saints for their ongoing support,” said Mr Marsden.
“We couldn’t have done it without the support from Ken Williams and all the staff at the Kingfisher, who have been so wonderful not only helping with collections but also providing space to count the money.
We also want to say a big thank you to the Redditch branch of the Royal British Legion including Chairman Rob Reynolds and Secretary Alison Gray for their sterling efforts with the appeal.
“We are very grateful to all who gave their time and of course to the generous people of the town for their truly marvelous work.”
The Emmanuel Church, Redditch also gave a large donation to help replace any funds lost through stolen collection boxes during the appeal.
In all £3,821 of the total was donated in old pound coins.
All money raised will got towards helping ex-servicemen and the Armed Forces community.
