Poppy Appeal collections resume after two years

COLLECTIONS for the Poppy Appeal have resumed in Sonning Common for the first time in two years.

They had stopped after volunteers were deployed in areas with greater footfall, such as Henley, to maximise donations.

But collections have resumed this year following talks between parish councillor Jonny Bidgood and Richard Pinches, who organises the Poppy Appeal in Henley.

Mr Bidgood said: “We don’t really know why the number of volunteers in the village dropped off but it did.

“I realised there was a shortfall and I found out recently that Richard had started organising the collections and so we liaised with each other and he supported us in bringing back collections for the Poppy Appeal.”

Mr Pinches said that he put out a call for more volunteers this year and has had a positive response.

He said: “People are very willing to give their time. I’ve got a great husband and wife team who are covering for me in this area.

“In general, in the area in and around Sonning Common, people are very generous. I’m amazed by it — people give more than they need to.

“The visibility of what we do has been raised as well and it’s about keeping the idea of the Poppy Appeal in front of people for as long as possible for this two-week period.”

To mark the return of collections, Mr Bidgood has decorated the traditional red K6 telephone box in front of the village hall in Wood Lane.

He draped a white ensign flag inside the box, with knitted poppies scattered on the bottom, donated by the Women’s Institute, to symbolise drops of blood. The flag was donated by retired Lieutenant Commanders Gillian and Alex Manning, who are running the appeal in the village.

Lt Cdr Manning, 80, who served in the Royal Navy Reserve for 25 years, said that the profile of the appeal had been raised this year compared to previous years.

Along with her husband Alex, 78, she has been volunteering with the Royal British Legion for 20 years, with 10 of those in Henley. They also lead the Remembrance services for the village.

She said: “We’ve been members of Legion for many years and always help at this time of year. The best part is meeting different and interesting people. People tend to stop and talk and ask about our medals and our background.”

Lt Cdr Manning said that the reason there are fewer volunteers allocated to the Sonning Common area is because the branch needs to optimise donations.

She said: “Outside Tesco and Waitrose in Henley tend to be the busiest areas, so we have mostly relied on in-store collection. Unless you go house to house and literally knock on doors, you have to put your resources into where the activity is based, which is in the main shops.

“Everyone is really supportive and all of the shopkeepers are more than happy to have boxes on their counters. We stand outside the Co-op sometimes as well and try to catch people on the pavement going by. If we have enough volunteers, we could probably have someone outside all day but we don’t have enough.”

Donation boxes can be found in the Co-op, The Common coffee shop, Pet Country Supplies and One Stop and the Day Lewis Pharmacy in Wood Lane.

Meanwhile, the Sonning Common branch of the Women’s Institute has also knitted a new topper for the village post box, which features knitted soldiers adorned with flags from countries fighting with the Allies in the First World War, as well as nurses treating wounded soldiers.

Beverly Porteous, a member of the group, said: “It’s knitted by various members of the WI. We each knitted some of the items for the D-Day landing topper. I knitted a couple of soldiers and they took about a couple of hours each.

“We started working on the toppers about two months before we needed them and then somebody took it on to put it all together.”

Marilyn Mowatt, 71, who organised the topper, said that the green beret that forms the base had been re-used from previous displays and the figures were knitted by a member of the crafts group, which began knitting the poppies in the summer.

She said: “It’s a big project because they have the cones of poppies in the garden bed as well as the individual flowers. We have 20 people in our crafts group and most of them have been knitting poppies for months.”