Jim and Sue Carroll, organisers of Wanstead’s Poppy Appeal collection, write:
A huge thank you to the people of Wanstead for their response to this year’s poppy collection for the British Legion. In spite of the difficult circumstances and the very last minute change of plans (apologies to those of you who missed Jim the Poppy Man later in the week) as a result of the Government’s newest lockdown, you still gave extremely generously to the cause. A one day ‘flash sale’ of poppies outside the old bakers shop (sadly missed but very helpful for us) netted £1,184.48 in a single day, with socially distanced queues forming at the table! It took a little while to get the odds and ends in and counted because of the sudden door closures, but we are proud to say that the Wanstead area collected £3,247.35, a bit over half of the normal annual rate.
Specials mentions to Moments and Wanstead Station, both of whom really surprised everyone and also to Daisy the Florist, Harveys the Grocers and Cafe ChiChi, not only for doing really well, the last two as first time collecting stations, but for staying open during the lockdowns to keep us supplied with what might not be life saving essentials, but were certainly mental health essentials!
With the vaccines coming on line we hope that next year will have something like normal service, but in the meantime we would like to wish everybody a happy and most importantly healthy 2021.
Thanks again
Jim and Sue Carroll
Wanstead poppy people