The Gamekeeper pub in Old Buckenham kindly provided the location for the villagers to hand over the money they had raised throughout 2017 for St Martins Housing Trust. The Chief Executive Officer of St Martins , Jan Sheldon, came along on Saturday 10 February together with Nicola King, the Life Skills coordinator and Ricky, one of the people that the Trust has helped.
As a result of their activities during the past year, mainly collecting outside the major supermarkets, the people of Old Buckenham were able to hand over some £31,000. With a further £1000 from the Old Buckenham 2000 Trust and £500 raised at the candle-lit service at All Saints Church on Christmas Eve, St Martins will receive around £32,500.
Jan Sheldon spoke of how they appeared to have been successful in slightly reducing the number of people sleeping rough in Norwich and Nichola King explained the value of teaching life skills in the fight against homelessness. Ricky was one of the people that they have helped. He told of how he had gone from being a proud member of the TA to ‘sofa surfing’ and then sleeping on the beach before gaining a bed at St Martins which has allowed him to start living a more normal life again.
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| Ricky telling of his experiences and help from St Martins |
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| Handover of donations From left, Rev Canon Stephen Wright, Ricky, Sarah Dye, Jan Sheldon |
Sarah Dye handed over the cheques on behalf of the people of Old Buckenham. It is hoped that some of those involved will be able to visit the St Martins’ facilities in Norwich later in the year to see what their fund raising efforts have helped to provide.
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| A much better photograph provided by St Martins |
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