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Putting the fun into fundraising!

Updated: Mar 9, 2019


Antonia and Christine in their busy office

Antonia and Christine had plenty for me to do today! A tray of delightful little knitted chicks - hand made with love by a volunteer - needed to be filled with a Cadbury's cream egg - kindly donated by Sainsbury's - and then wrappped and tied to look beautiful enough for people to buy as Easter gifts. I didn't like to tell them that I am the worst present wrapper ever, as my family will testify, but I gave it my best shot and they seemed pleased with my efforts.






Well, this is my best effort! Available to buy for a suggested donation of £2 from the main reception.

The fundraising team have a daunting annual target of raising £1.9 million to provide the rich variety of additional services for our residents which give them a more rounded quality of life and opportunity for ongoing rehabilitation. Our residents' are supported by the in-house Physiotherapy, Occupational Therapy and Speech therapy teams as well as enjoying daily activities in the Social and Recreation area and a busy programme of outings and trips on our own specially adapted coach and minibus. There is always great excitement when a trip to the international rugby at Twickenham is looming and of course the annual outing to the Cenotaph in London is a very poignant time of remembrance. There are also many in-house special events with visiting musical groups, entertainers, talks, quizzes, sports championships - mainly darts! - and of course our own choir of residents with their families/friends and volunteers. More about all this later when I do my work experience with these teams.

All these wonderful life affirming things come with a cost hence the importance of our fundraising team. Little Easter chicks at £2 a time may seem a tiny drop in the ocean but every penny is valuable to us. 95p in every £1 goes directly to supporting our residents which to me seems pretty marvellous. I discovered that the fundraising team are busy organising a spectacular Auction of 100 items for 100 years as well as a Quiz Night, Golf Day, a Fun Run, Gardens Open, Centenary Summer Fayre with Joanna Lumley and The Ghurkas and much, much more. Check out the website for the details and why not join in the fun!


Well, after my rather wonderful chick wrapping - ! - Antonia picked my brains about how they could harness support from the local churches either through direct donations or by offering their premises for events or encouraging volunteers to join us. Lots of ideas were shared which Antonia will develop later but this one is very simple. We are going to try to set up our own weekly Knit and Natter group made up of local volunteers and some of our residents too, who will gather in our Day Room to make items which can be sold for our funds, complete tasks such as the now famous chick wrapping and just create a happy 'buzz' over a cup of tea. Fun for everyone and productive too. If you are interested then ring Christine or Antonia via the switchboard.


I was so impressed with the care and compassion that Christine and Antonia have for their work. They are clearly motivated by their love of the home and they understand what it means to our residents to live here. Christine says ' I love the diversity of the role, no one day is the same, I love the challenge and hard work. I love talking to people about the amazing multi-faceted approach of rehabilitation and care . But what I love more than anything is that what I do makes a difference to the lives of the Veterans in our care. I am very proud to work for Care for Veterans'. Both of them give freely of their obviously competent fundraising skills and network connections. It takes great courage to make a personal commitment to raising such a huge amount of money every year and to put their working lives and reputations on the line. Their knowledge and passion for their work is communicated so freely and naturally - that is why they are so good at what they do. Thank you for allowing me to share in your world for a few hours and thank you for being so amazing.


Interesting Fact: 67% of the supporters on our database are female.


Amazing Statistic: Our 'Fantastic Fifty' runners at the Worthing 10k last year ran between them 334.8 miles. This year we are recruiting for the 'Heroic One Hundred' which would result in an amazing 620 fundraising miles run for Care for Veterans.

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