County's generosity is simply humbling

In Chippenham on Friday, people thrust £20 notes into their palms helping a band of 12 volunteers from the Chippenham and Wiltshire Vale Rotary clubs raise almost £9,000 for the Tsunami Appeal in a matter of hours.

President Eric Sambell called it a truly moving experience.

"It became abundantly clear early on in the day that the collecting boxes we were using were not up to the task, as the slots became jammed with notes," he said.

"We quickly deployed buckets and witnessed true generosity as purses were upturned and emptied into the buckets. In all a staggering £9,000 has been raised.

"We have never seen so many £20 and £10 notes being readily dropped into our Rotary collecting buckets.

"We had four people working full time just cashing up and going to the bank. It's the most we've ever raised in a street collection if we take £1,000 we're quite pleased."

By Saturday, £8,710 had already been spent. Nine Shelter boxes, each containing a ten person tent, ten sleeping bags, water purifying material, water carrying bags, cooking pots, ropes and tools, were bought at a total cost of £4,410 and a further £2,100 was used to buy Aquaboxes, designed to purify 33,000 litres of water.

A further £2,200 has been donated to the Rotary District Disaster Relief Fund.

Mr Sambell said: "Since the disaster, contact has been re-established with the Rotary clubs of South India and Sri Lanka, which have already started distributing boxes in the affected areas. The boxes funded by the people of Chippenham will maintain that vital flow of aid."

Mayor Ross Henning applauded the effort. He said: "It makes me want to cry. I think it goes to show how generous and thoughtful people can be.

"This is a worldwide disaster and I am humbled by the amount this country, and Chippenham, are giving. It reinforces my faith in human nature."

The picture was the same in Devizes where town mayor Margaret Taylor and some of her fellow councillors spent much of Thursday and Friday collecting for Wiltshire Red Cross's tsunami appeal.

Coun Taylor said: "People have been incredibly generous. No-one has put in less than £1 and quite a few have put in notes."

Over the two days, the town councillors collected well over £6,000 with more to come in.

The Devizes Rotary Club has also been collecting so that their organisation can get their Aquaboxes out to the areas where they are needed.

Branch president Peter Greed was overwhelmed by the response his members received on Thursday when the "amazing" total of £4,117 was collected sufficient to provide 137 Aquaboxes.

He wrote: "The response by you, the citizens of Devizes and district, to the Rotary Club's emergency collection in the Market Place last Thursday far exceeded our expectations, notes frequently more prevalent than coins."

Meanwhile, sisters Sally Walters, 53, and Tessa Taylor, 50, gave up their New Year's Eve to wash glasses for ten hours in a nightclub and donated all their earnings to the appeal.

Mrs Walters, of Poppy Close, Calne, said they went for a weekend away to Newquay and saw an advert for staff in a club window.

"We just thought 'let's do it'. We couldn't afford to make a donation, so we thought we'd work for it, and it meant so much more," she said.

"We were exhausted but we were the oldest there by about 30 years. We worked non-stop from 7pm until 5am, but we were working hard for the people who were working hard to look after the victims."

The women, who both work at Stonar School in Melksham, donated £75 each to the appeal.

Budding poet Val Chapman, 60, was so touched by the pictures of the disaster, she put pen to paper and raised £200 for the appeal.

Mrs Chapman, of Springfield Drive, Calne, said: "I don't know where the words came from, I just wrote it. It really hit home how serious the tsunami was."

She placed copies of the poem on tables at her local Conservative Club's bingo night on Sunday, and asked fellow players for donations.

Regulars at the London Road Inn, Calne, donated £650 to the tsunami appeal and the cash is still rolling in.

Andy Hannon, one of the organisers of the collection, said people were so touched by the disaster they all wanted to help.

"We raffled off a couple of bottles, but I never expected to raise this much money," he said. "Six hundred pounds-plus is a lot of money for a small pub."

Revellers celebrating New Year's Eve at the Rose and Crown in Chippenham raised £840 through donations.

Assistant manager Richard Wheeler said: "We thought we might raise a bit but nowhere near this amount. It's brilliant."

Officials of Chippenham Town Football Club were delighted with the response of fans who attended the New Year's Day home league game against Tiverton Town on Saturday.

A bucket collection taken before the game raised £346 for the tsunami appeal.

Gifts of goods reach the ceiling

Following the unprecedented generosity of the public in the face of the disaster, Oxfam shops will need 10,000 extra volunteers in the New Year to cope with the enormous number of donations received.

The Oxfam shop in Chippenham has been overwhelmed by the response of residents with donations of material goods reaching the ceiling and cash gifts exceeding all records, with £5,000 handed over in just one day last week.

Manager Jane Billett said: "We were overwhelmed emotionally as well as materially by people's generosity.

"We are really in awe of what people have done."

Some Oxfam shops nationally may be forced to temporarily close in the New Year if volunteers are not available to help, and while the Chippenham shop has enough volunteers to keep the doors open, Ms Billett said they would welcome extra helpers.

"We always want more volunteers," she said. "We've had someone new offer to come in for three days to help but more would be great."