Spotlight on Charities in Kent - Children in Need, Ride and Stride, Leave a legacy, Surviving winter and Shop aid...
Spotlight on Charities in Kent
Children in Need
Pudsey Bear popped over to Sheerness for the national launch of the Round Table’s fundraising campaign for Children In Need, whose official appeal date is 18 November.
Caleb Watson, national organiser for Children In Need fundraising through Round Table, Vice Chairman and member of Sheppey Round Table, welcomed Pudsey to the launch which aims to raise more than �91,000 in Kent to beat last year’s total of �45,000.
Caleb has supplied Pudsey Bear with his very own HQ at Sheerness windmill, which he has lovingly restored over the past four years.
Volunteers spent the day making 2,500 collection jars to start the fundraising ball rolling.
Ride and Stride
The High Sheriff of Kent, Georgie Warner, joined The Friends of Kent Churches’ Sponsored Ride and Stride this year on horseback in support of this annual event.
Half the sponsorship money raised by each participant goes to the church or chapel of their choice, with the other half going to the Friends, who use it to help the most needy churches and chapels in use in the county.
The ride started in 1982 in Suffolk, 36 counties now take part and altogether more than �29m has been raised nationally. Last year more than �140,000, including gift aid, was raised in Kent, with 741 churches and chapels involved and the organisers say they are confident of at least matching that figure, which we will report once all the final sponsor money has come in.
Leave a legacy
November is Make a Will month – and while you will want to remember your friends and family, it is also a way of remembering charitable causes close to your heart.
Legacies are worth about �2bn in donations to charities each year across the UK, and the good news is that in April the Chancellor announced a cut in the rate of inheritance tax from 40 to 36 per cent from April 2012 for those who leave at least 10 per cent of their estates to a good cause.
If you want to support a variety of local causes, then you could consider a legacy to Kent Community Foundation to set up a fund in your own or a loved one’s memory.
Call Kent Community Foundation on 01303 814500 for more information and for all supporting websites, visit: http://kent.greatbritishlife.co.uk/community/links/
Surviving winter
In Kent one in seven households is occupied by a pensioner living alone. More than half are pensioners with a long-term, life-limiting illness.
Surviving Winter is a national campaign endorsed by Ros Altmann, Director-General of The Saga Group in Folkestone. Kent Community Foundation is running the appeal locally to those who can afford to donate their Winter Fuel Payment to those who are struggling.
KCF will identify winter need using its Kent-wide network, and distribute donations most cost-effectively via local lunch clubs, day centres and charities for older people.
By Gift Aiding donations where possible, all support costs should be covered by the tax reimbursement.
To make a donation, visit: http://kent.greatbritishlife.co.uk/community/links/
Shop aid
If you live in the Hythe area and shop in Sainsburys, make sure you head there to buy your November and December copies of Kent Life, as the supermarket is donating a generous �1 from each purchase to Age UK (formerly Age Concern and Help the Aged) for Hythe and Lyminge.
