British Legion Poppy Appeal - Nov 2018

British Legion Poppy Appeal - 2018

This is the 15th year that the club has been running the British Legion Poppy appeal and this is probably the largest event the club is involved in each year.
 
Originally it was a group of five of our members, led by John Stevens, who volunteered to work under the guidance of Joan Ralph (the last remaining British Legion member in Beckenham) to organise at the collection over about half of the Beckenham area and we raised £3702 that year.

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Following her death in 2009, we combined with John Bennett to cover the whole of Beckenham (BR3) and our involvement has increased year on year.

The last five years following John Bennett's retirement, the club has taken on the whole responsibility for the Poppy appeal in Beckenham and the amount raised has increased to over £30,000 annually. This year, Christ Church, Beckenham very kindly allowed us to use the ground floor of their house behind the High Street, without which we could not operate the Poppy appeal.

We are indebted to the many members of the public (as well as our Rotarians) who have come forward to collect at supermarkets and stations, some standing there are on as many as five occasions over the two weeks. A big thank you to all our volunteers and helpers, including members of the Air Training Corps (1903 Squadron).

Last year we raised over £35,000 and this year, early indications are that we will have raised over £37,000.