Uckfield mum launches fund to help Japan after tsunami
.jpg "Uckfield mum launches fund to help Japan after tsunami")
An Uckfield mum moved to tears by pictures of the devastation in Japan following the earthquake and tsunami has launched an appeal for funds to help survivors.
Sue Figg from Manor Way said she had never done anything like this before but the response to her appeal was heart-warming.
She is a member of the Parent Friends Association at Holy Cross School and thought it might be possible to do some fund-raising there but then decided to open the appeal to other schools too.
Head teachers from all the town schools – Holy Cross, Rocks Park, St Philip’s, Manor, Harlands and the Uckfield Community Technology College - attended a meeting along with others from village schools to discuss working together.
Sue, who is married to Russell and has three children Daniel, aged 6, Nathan, 4 and Laura, 3, decided to mark the appeal by planting bulbs which, when they flowered each year, would remind people of how they contributed as a community to the disaster fund.
She was given 2,000 English bluebell bulbs by J Parkers Bulbs and, on Bank Holiday Monday, she and a team of helpers planted them in Elizabeth Gardens in the centre of Uckfield where everybody can enjoy them in years to come.
“It is very difficult for us to comprehend the scale of the disaster but one of the towns lost in the earthquake and tsunami was the size of Uckfield,” Sue said.
“It made me cry watching the scenes on the news and I wanted to try to help.”
Letters will soon be going out to families via local schools asking for donations to Save The Children’s Japanese Emergency Fund.
Anybody who would like to contribute is asked to take donations to participating schools by May 31.
Children are pictured below with some of the bluebell bulbs they helped plant on Saturday. Thanks to Ron Hill for the photograph.
See also:
Bluebells in Views Wood, Uckfield
Concern about parking problems in Downsview Crescent, Uckfield
(Added to site Wednesday, April 27th, 2011)
