SCF celebrates record-breaking Surviving Winter appeal

24 February 2020

Somerset Community Foundation (SCF) is delighted to announce that the 2019/20 Surviving Winter appeal has raised a record-breaking £110,000, thanks to the generosity of local donors. The team at SCF has been distributing funding across the county and aims to support more than 500 vulnerable older people with a Surviving Winter grant, helping to keep them warm, safe and well.

The annual appeal encourages pensioners who can afford to, to donate some or all of their Winter Fuel Payment. These donations provide funding and support to our older neighbours across Somerset who are struggling to heat their homes.

Since Surviving Winter first launched in Somerset in 2010, the appeal has raised an astounding £800,000 in total for the county. SCF’s Development Director, Laura Blake, thanked local people for rallying behind the appeal: “We have been absolutely blown away by the support we’ve received for this year’s Surviving Winter appeal.

“We’re hugely grateful to each and every person who has donated – and particularly those who donate year after year. Without their support, we know lots of older people in Somerset would be suffering in silence during the cold winter months.”

SCF would also like to thank TelePA who offered their services free-of-charge to the charitable campaign this year. The telephone answering service, based in Westbury-sub-Mendip, near Wells, took dozens of calls from Somerset residents wishing to donate to the Surviving Winter 2019/20 appeal.

For information on how to apply for a Surviving Winter grant, please contact either Community Council for Somerset on 01823 331222 or visit the website www.somersetcf.org.uk/winter

To donate some or all of your Winter Fuel Payment, or to make a donation of any size to the Surviving Winter appeal, please visit www.somersetcf.org.uk/winter