Thursday 14th November 2024 - Unusually Busy and Eventful!

It’s been an unusually busy and eventful few days.  Firstly, on Sunday, I broke a tooth – nothing like crispy pork crackling for breaking teeth, pretty well on a par with Nuttall’s Mintoes, famed for pulling out fillings!

On Monday morning I went along to St Martin’s church for the Armistice service.  This was held outside by the war memorial.  Here, Oak Class from the Belfry School gave a very moving and graphic interpretation covering one of the men of the village who was a soldier in the Great War.

Now for Tuesday, when I spent most of the morning collecting Poppy Appeal trays and collecting tins.  Later in the morning, when we were taking a neighbour’s dogs for a walk, I tripped over a flint protruding from a footpath and ended facing the earth.  I went down with such a force; I was lucky not to break anything, just a swollen finger and few other tender parts of my body. I was fortunate to get an appointment at the dentist for Tuesday afternoon; thankfully my broken tooth was a quick fix.  Back in the village we collected the final tray and collecting tin.

Wednesday morning, a group of us met up to count the donations, in the collecting tins.  By midday the money was all bagged and paying-in sheets completed.  We then ‘descended’ on the Post Office where Nicki took the processing of the bags of coins etc. in her stride.  Back home, I started to prepare everything ready for returning to the British Legion before going, in the afternoon, to the Belfry café to join fellow Ex WI members for a cuppa and a natter.  Later I filled in the Poppy Appeal record book and tallied up the collections which showed the total amount raised this year is a very respectable £1313.15.

This morning, I finished packing up the British Legion items for return, completed and submitted my Statement of Account, wrote out thank you cards and produced posters for the schools.  Still not finished, this afternoon we distributed almost all of the thank you cards, booked a collection date and I’ve produced posters for the village.  Still a bit of tidying up to do, but basically that’s the Poppy Appeal in Overstrand finished for 2024.

I would like to thank, Lesley, Derek and Martin and Peter who helped with the donations count, Nicki for processing the donations, Gordon for arranging for us to use the Methodist Church for the count and who also flew the Poppy Flag on Monday and of course, everyone who purchased a wreath and made a donation.  To round off, today’s photo was taken on Monday at the end of the Armistice service.