The Poppy Appeal in Harrogate

POPPY APPEAL REPORT TO MEMBERS AT THE AGM

 The 2010/11 Appeal finished at the end of September this year.  There was an increase in outlets selling poppies.  Use was made of the old committee room at the Conservative Club on East Parade, this proved to be a great success due to its location in town.  The advantage lies in the fact the those selling poppies do not have walk to and from Community House especially on the Saturdays.

This year's Appeal was launched at Oatlands by the annual band concert attended by the Mayor of Harrogate with an excellent performance by the band of Harrogate High School.

This year the Appeal was run again from the Conservative Club.  We have over 100 new locations taking us to over 850 outlets selling poppies.

We had an excellent start to the Appeal by being invited by the Harrogate Dramatic Society's performances of Dad's Army at Harrogate Theatre.  We were present at the end of each performance for a bucket collection and raised £904.
 

Orders for wreaths were received and made up.  The Garden of Remembrance was opened by the War Memorial.  This year it was noted that more crosses had been laid than in previous years.  Due to the Gardens suitable location and also to safety constrains consideration is being made as to making this a permanent location.

On each day of the Appeal there were people out selling poppies, it must be noted that on some days the temperature dropped dramatically during the day.
This year we were able to cover the RAF band concert as it was in the middle of the Appeal.

Young Soldiers helped to sell Poppies on the Saturdays but unfortunately were unable to be present until midday on the second Saturday.

Special mention must be made of the Cadets.  The ACF manned Morrisons and Asda over both weekends.  The ATC manned supermarkets in the evenings.  Younger members of the SCC sold poppies.

On the morning of the second Saturday Cadets from all branches were out selling poppies and our thanks must go to the detachment commanders for their support.
The support given by the AFC and Cadets is
                  Army Foundation College    £3552.21
                  Army Cadet Force              £6376.15
                  Air Training Corps              £1161.90
                  Sea Cadet Corps                 £145.19

I would like to express our deepest gratitude to all those who have helped the Appeal in any way this year, I would like to point out that a lot of non RBL personal helped out with the Appeal.

This time last year £57,777 had been banked and by the end of September £63.089 had been declared, compare this with £60,000 the previous year.
This year so far £1577 has been donated as gift aid this gives us an extra £441 in June.

This year we have banked £70,934 plus £802 in direct sales making a total to date of £71.736.

ONGOING APPEAL

Anyone interested in helping in the Poppy Appeal should contact our Poppy Appeal Coordinators Colin Skinner or Mike Comerford.  poppyharrogate@googlemail.com

Each year the Poppy Appeal for the Harrogate Victory Branch is launched with a Band Concert at the Branch Social Meeting - 2012 projected date (tbc) is Thursday 18th October 2012