Red Cross Blogs

All hands to the bucket

By Julie Linter
May 11, 2009 at 11:22 am

It was “all hands to the bucket” last week during Red Cross Appeal Week. On Friday Sahra and I collected at a garden centre near Bristol – it was certainly a case of “come rain or shine” not to mention wind – we were pretty cold at the end of two hours.

But it was well worth it as a lot of people put money in our buckets and it is encouraging to know that so many want to give money to the Red Cross. Several people told us that the Red Cross is their favourite charity.

On Saturday I collected in Wootton Bassett and again people gave generously. One elderly lady thanked me for getting up so early to collect for the Red Cross and then looked me in the eye and said “it’s special”. The way she said it brought a lump to my throat and afterwards I wished I’d asked her why she felt like that – had the Red Cross helped her or her family in the past, had she been a volunteer, had she seen TV images of the Red Cross helping people in crisis overseas?

So many people’s lives have been touched by the Red Cross.

It’s always heartening to see young children putting money in the bucket, being encouraged by their parents at an early age to give money to help others (and of course the Red Cross Appeal Week sticker is always popular!).

Hugh has been collecting for the Red Cross for many years in Wootton Bassett. I would guess that he is in his 80’s. He arrived on his electric scooter, dressed up for the cold and eager to start his second shift this year. He told me about the time that he collected £90 in two hours – he was hoping to beat that record this year – I hope he did.

It’s not too late to donate or get involved with other fundraising activities, helping the British Red Cross care for people in crisis in the UK and overseas. In future blogs I’ll let you know how we are helping vulnerable refugees and asylum seekers in Bristol.

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Tags: donations, fundraising, volunteer

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This entry was posted on Monday, May 11th, 2009 at 11:22 am and is filed under Health and social care. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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