Somerset Community Foundation’s Surviving Winter campaign is off to a great start with over 10% of the £100,000 target already raised!
Thanks to readers like you who have donated their Winter Fuel Payments, hundreds of vulnerable pensioners across Somerset will be protected from the harsh effects of fuel poverty, loneliness and isolation this winter.
Somerset Community Foundation (SCF), who administer the annual award-winning campaign, is also delighted to announce the latest celebrity to support the campaign, celebrated potter John Leach, who is the eldest grandson of renowned potter Bernard Leach and son of potter David Leach.
John continues the family tradition in his pottery in Muchelney with his wife Lizzie and knows all about how difficult winter can be. He was one of hundreds of people in the community of Muchelney to be hugely impacted by the flooding of the Somerset levels during the winter of 2013/14.
John says: “I’m very pleased to be supporting Surviving Winter – it’s a campaign I heartily endorse. I love Somerset and strongly believe that it’s important to look after our neighbours – especially in times of need. My wife Lizzie and I have donated our Winter Fuel Payments to this incredibly worthwhile cause, and, if you have the means, I would ask that you would consider the same.”
A Surviving Winter grant is more than just a donation towards the heating bill. It is also the first step towards connecting people living in fuel poverty to a local community partner; this can become the foundation for a new relationship that can help to overcome the isolation and loneliness many older people experience.
Somerset Community Foundation aims to help at least 500 pensioner households struggling to heat their homes and to stay healthy this winter. To donate some or all of your Winter Fuel Payment, or to make a donation of any size to the Surviving Winter appeal, please send a cheque made payable to Somerset Community Foundation (write SW on the back), Yeoman House, Bath and West Showground, Shepton Mallet, BA4 6QN; or call 01749 344949; or you can donate online at: www.somersetcf.org.uk/winter
Gift Aid forms are available to download on the website or you can fill in the Surviving Winter Gift Aid Declaration Form when you post your cheque.
If you run a local community project and would like to find out more about grant funding, please call Somerset Community Foundation on: 01749 344949 or visit: www.somersetcf.org.uk
