A big ‘thank you’ from the Poppy Appeal

£29,500 has been collected in this year’s Poppy Appeal for the Royal British Legion with donations made from members of the community, schools, businesses and at the town’s annual charity rugby match. It’s an increase of over £5,000 from last year’s £24,400 total.

“On behalf of the Royal British Legion Melksham Branch, I would like to thank all the residents of Melksham and surrounding villages, for their very generous donations to this year’s Poppy Appeal, especially during this increased cost of living situation,” says Poppy Appeal organiser, Trevor Paterson, pictured.

“The total should be a little more, when we get the result of our QR codes on some of the poppy boxes and the Gift Aid donations on our card readers in the stores.”

“I would like to thank Mo Deedigan Thomas, the PR ambassador in Sainsbury’s and Emma Scott, the community champion in Asda and the managers of Waitrose and Lidl for their help with setting up our tables in their stores; we raised a total of £16,147 in their stores, a big improvement on last year’s total. Their customers were very generous this year!

“I would like to thank Bruce Sanders and Tim Tandy, for helping me deliver and collect the Poppy tins and boxes to and from the stores and businesses in the town and to all the volunteers who helped to man our tables in Sainsbury’s, Asda, Waitrose and Lidl and also to the military group called ‘The Big Group1’ for bringing their vehicles to display and collect for us in Sainsbury’s car park on the final Saturday!

“I would also like to thank Andy, commander of the Melksham Detachment of the Army Cadet Force, for collecting all day for us in Asda on the first Saturday and also collecting from the crowds with our Poppy Appeal buckets, at our services at the War Memorial on Armistice Day and Remembrance Sunday.

“The Melksham Rugby Football Club were again able to stage their charity rugby match between the club veterans and the Melksham army veterans, the army won for the first time! The weather was not very kind to us this year but it was a great match! The event raised £1,326, consisting of £392 raised on our poppy table in the bar, the poppy tin on the bar, the auction of a Bath Rugby Club shirt and £936 from the raffle, with prizes donated by local businesses in the town and neighbourhood; thank you for your support to this year’s Poppy Appeal.

“A very big thank you to Lisa Reece, Shell Pearce and Lorraine Fitch for organising the raffle and Jona and Richard Grieshaber and their respective committees, for organising the event!

“Melksham and the surrounding village schools have again been very supportive, with a total of £2,518 donated.

“I would like to thank Rod and Christine Price again for organising the collections from the schools, organisations and businesses in Atworth. We also received large donations from individuals and organisations in and around Melksham.”

• The owners of the New Inn pub and restaurant on Semington Road, Ronnie Carter and Terry Milne, have also been fundraising for the RBL.

“They held a Grand Raffle over the Christmas period last year, raising £600; a Coronation Day with three artists singing and a special Coronation menu, which raised £552; a party to celebrate the first anniversary of the reopening, after their huge renovation of the pub and restaurant; and a Halloween party on 8th October, again donating proceeds from both these events, bringing their total donations to the Poppy Appeal this year to £1,575!

“Finally, I would like to thank Ronnie and Terry for holding a Wake for Colin Pritchard, one of the most popular members of the pub, and RAFA and RBL Branches in Melksham, his family were most grateful and he will be sorely missed by me and all his friends, far and wide!”