Wirral Scouts and Guides Christmas Post raises record amount

Feb 8 2013

WIRRAL Scouts & Guides Christmas Post raised a record £26,000 in 2012.  

The money has been divided between 13 local charities, including Wirral Heart Beat and Bebington Hard of Hearing Club. Participating Scout and Guide groups will also benefit.

The Mayor of Wirral, Councillor Gerry Ellis, presented cheques to the charities at a special event at Wallasey Town Hall on Tuesday. 

The money is raised by selling special stamps to the public to use on their Christmas cards to Wirral-based family and friends. 

The cards are then franked and sorted within a main sorting centre in each area before Scouts and Guides – with the help of leaders, parents and friends – deliver the cards during the fortnight before Christmas.

Despite a decrease in the number of cards being sent last year, over half a million scout post stamps were sold in the run-up to Christmas. 

Richard Twemlow, chairman of the Wirral Scouts & Guides Christmas Charity Post, said: "The 2012 event went very well. So many charities on Wirral need our assistance and thanks to the support of the people of Wirral who buy our Christmas stamps and continue to do so each year, we’ve been able to help many local charities, and hope to be able to continue to do so in the future."

The Wirral Scouts & Guides Christmas Charity Post has been operating since 1982 and is the second largest scheme of its type in the UK. Since its inception, it has raised over £2million pounds - of which over half a million pounds has been donated to over 220 local charities.

Alex Ikoku-Croft, 12, of the 11th Bebington Scout Group, has helped deliver the scout post for the last three years. He said: "Doing things for charity makes me feel good."

The money was divided between: Bebington Hard of Hearing Club, Children's Cancer Support Group (CHICS), Dale Farm Association, Friends of Cambridge Road Amenity Group, Little Neston Methodist Church, North West Cancer Research, Northern Lights, Parkinson’s UK, Ronald McDonald House Charities (RMHC), Wirral Association for Spina Bifida and Hydrocephalus, Wirral Disabled Integrated Social Club, Wirral Heart Beat, Wirral Resource Centre & Toy Library.   Chairman of the scout post's charities committee, David Hulme said: "Where possible we try to give to all the local charities that apply and each year the charities are different." 

For more information visit www.wirralcharitypost.org