£10,000 mystery donation
follows campaign
A mystery benefactor handed a £10,000 cheque to a homeless
charity after reading about their plight in his local
newspaper.
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The donor’s heart strings were tugged after seeing a piece
on the Kentish Gazette’s Give Them
Shelter campaign which raises money for community night shelters to
help people living rough in Canterbury in Kent during the harsh
winter months.
Community shelter co-ordinator Chris Kemble from the charity
Catching Lives said: “We had a
call from someone who wanted to visit us with the intention of
making a donation.
“When he arrived he was actually carrying a clipping from the
Gazette which featured the recent appeal. When he told us he wanted
to donate £10,000 our jaws dropped.”
The donation means they now have enough money to pay for the
shelters in church halls and similar venues for three months. Last
year’s campaign raised £18,000 in just a month.
The campaign is the brainchild of the KM Group-owned weekly
newspaper’s chief reporter Gerry Warren and involves stories in the
Gazette, its sister free paper the Canterbury Extra, mentions
on its sister radio station kmfm,
stories online as well as being talked about on Twitter and Facebook.
Editor Leo Whitlock: “Together with our readers, I’m proud that
we’ve been able to make a real difference.
“With the cold weather just around the corner, this donation
could help to save lives and it shows how much good local
newspapers do week in and week out.”
(November 22, 2011)