What is the Shoebox Appeal?


Originally conceived 3 years ago, the Shoebox Appeal has been set up to send boxes of goodies to our troops in Afghanistan and we are looking for people like you, or your organisation, to donate what you can to help the troops feel that they're not forgotten while serving a long way from home. This years packing day was very successful with the help of all the volunteers packing boxes over the 2 day period. Thank you to everyone that gave their weekend to packing boxes, it was a good time with everyone making new friends and looking forward to seeing them again at next year's packing days. We managed to pack just over 3,000 boxes with 1,000 of these being donated by the East and West Kent WI, Greenhill Senior Citizens Assoc and the general public who contacted the website. Over 6,000 hats were knitted by a band of volunteers from all over England, Scotland and Wales and packed into the boxes.Sincere thanks to: the members of Canterbury RMA for all the support they have given towards the appeal. Bob Taylor for giving up his weekends and evenings to collect boxes from various venues and giving talks about the shoeboxes and for giving up a tidy house that eventually turned into a shoebox warehouse. Mike Russell and Micky Spragg for all the press reports and radio interviews and being at the end of the phone when I needed help and support. Barrie and Roma for collecting boxes from the various WI members all over Kent, John Parker for cutting endless rolls of wrapping paper and donating wool for the hats. Jane Barker for knitting hundreds of woolly hats. Geoff Deed, Roger Payne and the Chatham Marine Cadets for helping raise funds at our shoebox collection day. The Chatham RMA, who also helped with our collections and packing day.

Originally conceived 3 years ago, the Shoebox Appeal has been set up to send boxes of goodies to our troops in Afghanistan and we are looking for people like you, or your organisation, to donate what you can to help the troops feel that they're not forgotten while serving a long way from home.

This years packing day was very successful with the help of all the volunteers packing boxes over the 2 day period. Thank you to everyone that gave their weekend to packing boxes, it was a good time with everyone making new friends and looking forward to seeing them again at next year's packing days. We managed to pack just over 3,000 boxes with 1,000 of these being donated by the East and West Kent WI, Greenhill Senior Citizens Assoc and the general public who contacted the website. Over 6,000 hats were knitted by a band of volunteers from all over England, Scotland and Wales and packed into the boxes.Sincere thanks to:

the members of Canterbury RMA for all the support they have given towards the appeal.

Bob Taylor for giving up his weekends and evenings to collect boxes from various venues and giving talks about the shoeboxes and for giving up a tidy house that eventually turned into a shoebox warehouse.

Mike Russell and Micky Spragg for all the press reports and radio interviews and being at the end of the phone when I needed help and support.

Barrie and Roma for collecting boxes from the various WI members all over Kent, John Parker for cutting endless rolls of wrapping paper and donating wool for the hats.

Jane Barker for knitting hundreds of woolly hats.

Geoff Deed, Roger Payne and the Chatham Marine Cadets for helping raise funds at our shoebox collection day.

The Chatham RMA, who also helped with our collections and packing day.

Danny and Chris Brown for standing hours collecting over £1,000 for our Shoebox Appeal and to Chris for getting volunteer knitters from as far a field as Aberdeenshire.

Chatham Marine Cadets and their families and friends for the loan of their hall and galley for the 2 days and helping pack the boxes.

The Royal Engineers in Brompton for the loan of a large storage facility for our boxes and food stuffs.

..and finally my grandchildren Ross, Teagan and Mia for packing kilos of loose sweets into bags, and Cameron (aged 6) for helping with our packing day by collecting rubbish and keeping the decks clear.

Kids

From the letters I have received from Afghanistan they were very grateful for the boxes and messages of support from back home. They would like to thank Beryl for knitting socks and various items to keep them warm.

And a very big thank you from me for all the help and support from everyone involved.

Volunteers are always welcome and can reach me via the Contact Us page on this site.

Although we send these parcels to the Royal Marines they share them out with the other services, alongside whom they are also serving. Confirmation of this has come in the shape of thank you letters from Naval, Army and Air Force personnel. We also send a number of these boxes to the female personnel and nurses, as they often get forgotten about. They're working in very difficult conditions and see many terrible sights that we at home can't even contemplate."