Fire cadets in car washing fundraiser

By Connor Steel

LOCAL FIREFIGHTER CADETS joined together recently in a community effort to raise much needed funds and awareness for The Firefighters Charity, collecting nearly £700 overall by washing cars and vehicles for the general public in a huge effort within Gosport Fire Station.

Last Saturday (May 7) a small team of Gosport Fire Cadets joined up with members of the Hampshire and Isle of Wight Fire & Rescue Service (HIWFRS), raising a grand total of £684.64 for their efforts which saw plenty of requests for car washes throughout the day including staff on duty.

And there was plenty of happy customers on the day as one said of the brilliant service: “Well done and thank you for doing such a great job on my people carrier”, whilst another commented using social media:” Well done and thanks for cleaning my filthy embarrassing car lol”.

All monies raised have gone into a separate fundraiser entitled ‘Twenty peaks, 20 days’, which will see four firefighters from Hampshire and the Isle of Wight take the challenge of climbing the highest peaks across the United Kingdom in less than three weeks, due to finish on June 22 (Wednesday).

This will start on June 3 (Bank Holiday Friday) and the team hope to raise awareness of mental health issues experienced by firefighters, including their families. Funds will be going to support a Children & Family Programme currently in place at Harcombe House, located in Devon.

They need fundraising to purchase art / craft resources, mood bears for attending children, bereavement / workshop resources, refurbishment of the inside art room, outside planters and finally trugs for the garden used for talking / support. A target of £10,000 has been set with more fundraising events set to be carried out through the remaining weeks of May across the country, including Hampshire.

So far they have raised over £1,100 with sixteen donations, including the money raised by the car wash event held last weekend. Readers can see the charity fundraising link here, where they are further invited to read details on the challenge and how to donate to this worthy cause.

PICTURED BY HIWFRS: Small team of cadets wash a car to raise funds for firefighting charity last week.