Islanders raise over £9k in Air Ambulance donations
Islanders have raised more than £9,000 for Cornwall Air Ambulance after sending a whopping 498 bags of donated items to the mainland.
Jo Legg had been wanting to send some items to a mainland charity shop when she noticed a plea for clothing donations on the Cornwall Air Ambulance Facebook page.
She told This is Scilly: "I’ve sent to the British Heart Foundation and Cancer Research UK before, a few boxes at a time, but when I saw the post from Cornwall Air Ambulance I left a comment saying that if I could arrange something with the Isles of Scilly Steamship Group where they transport for free I could maybe get some stuff sent over.
"Their CEO got in touch and I said I’d speak to the Steamship Group and liaise with their head of shops."
Jo said she initially thought islanders may fill 100 bags but after posting about her plan on Facebook, she quickly realised that far more would be needed.
"I was driving through Camborne anyway so popped in their shop to pick up some bags and they gave me over 500," she said.
Jo delivered bags to interested residents and either collected them herself when they were full or donors delivered their goods to the Kavorna until they could be sent away.
Altogether her efforts resulted in 498 full bags plus various boxes of goods.
"I had underestimated how much space we would need on the Gry and only arranged for one container load," she said. "Dave, the new quay manager, very kindly agreed we could send another container too. The Steamship Group provided these two containers at no charge."
She posted on Facebook after sending the donations away last week: "Thank you very much to everyone who donated goods to the Air Ambulance shops. We have filled 1.5 containers and they will be leaving Scilly on the boat tomorrow. Cornwall Air Ambulance are hugely grateful to the islands for re-stocking their shops as they were in desperate need of donations. Many thanks to Liz Osborne, David and Lyn Townend and Celia Hicks (pictured above) for all your help. Good work everyone!"
Jo received a thank you card from Cornwall Air Ambulance at the weekend estimating the sale value of the donations to be £9,160.
