15 June 2023
Over the past two years, you may have seen events organised on St Helena and online to raise funds for the Community Care Centre (CCC). These events have now raised over £11,000. This has been mainly put towards improving the comfort of the residents by creating a beautiful outdoor space where they can sit in the shade and enjoy the beautiful weather, and to installing two new high-quality televisions in the common rooms.
The first donation came from SODEXO, a company based in the Falkland Islands. Fundraising for the donation was organised thanks to one of their employees, Patricia Bennett, who worked at the CCC during the many months when St Helena has COVID-19 quarantine protocols in effect.
The Bank of St Helena and Connect then joined in with fundraising efforts after being approached by Tracy Williams, SHG’s Environment Programme Manager.
Myrtle Clingham, former Head of Care at the CCC, organised a dance evening with the help of Melvin Benjamin from the Rock Club and Keith Joshua. The evening included a barbecue, music and a raffle. Prizes, very generously donated by members of the public and Island organisations, ranged from food hampers, plant pots, crockery, toasters, wine, spirits, chocolates and much more.
Many of these events were promoted on Facebook by Terri Clingham, prompting Johnny Clingham, originally from St Helena, who runs the blog and social media accounts for St Helena online, to set up a GoFundMe page. This attracted donations from South Africa, the Falklands and Australia, and enabled the purchase of the two televisions, which were kindly shipped to St Helena free of charge by Richard James International Ltd.
More information about the GoFundMe page can be found at www.sthelenaonline.org/help-us-to-raise-funds-to-fund-two-tvs-for-clients-on-st-helena/.
A collection was also organized by Gay Marr among the League of Friends Society on St Helena and further donations were received from families whose loved ones had stayed at the CCC.
Rosalie Hall Brown, Head of Service Social Care, said:
“It is absolutely fantastic to see the residents at the CCC enjoying the garden and the new televisions, especially knowing all of the hard work that went into raising the funds that have made this happen. It is a testament to the St Helena community, both here and abroad, that so many people stepped forward to fundraise and donate. I think I speak for all residents, staff and management in thanking everyone for their actions, support and donations.”
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