Newbury Weekly News Over 80's Parcel Distribution

     Newbury Weekly News over 80's Xmas Parcel Fund 2015

The  Newbury Weekly News' 119th Parcel Fund has been another great success. 

Every year since 1897, the newspaper has helped to bring some Christmas cheer into the lives of West Berkshire's older residents, through the Over-80s Christmas Parcel Fund.
The fund started out in the late 1800s as the 'Two T's Fund', and was set up by Frank Stillman, a Newbury Weekly News reporter at that time, who later became the newspaper's second editor. The aim was to give a Christmas gift of tobacco (!) and tea to some of Newbury's oldest residents, many of whom were accommodated in the workhouses in and around Newbury.

Now, more than 100 years on, the name has changed and the contents of the parcels have certainly changed, but even today the aim of the fund remains the same - to give the district's oldest citizens a seasonal gift from the community.

As in previous years Newbury Rotary Club supported this initiative in two ways:

-Rattling tins at Sainsbury's supermarket on Sunday 29th November from 10.00-4.00.

-Distributing parcels on Saturday 12th December. Distribution takes place from Fairclose Day Centre in Newbury.