Our Chosen Charity for 2016
Each year we support a charity with free stall space, advertising in the programme, shout-outs over the PA and free range of the showground with collecting buckets. We pledge a proportion of any surplus we are lucky enough to make and try our best to make the charity welcome. This year the club members voted overwhelmingly for Scotty’s Little Soldiers – a charity begun to help bereaved children of services personnel by someone who had lost her husband in Afghanistan. Best to let Nikki Scott tell it in her own words:
Inspired by the experience of Army widow Nikki Scott, the charity honours husband Corporal Lee Scott’s memory – both as a loyal soldier and a loving father – and provides a practical yet personal way for the public at large to show their appreciation for those brave individuals who make the ultimate sacrifice in the service of their country.
Nikki and Lee have 2 children, Kai and Brooke, so Nikki saw first hand the effect the loss of a loved one in these circumstances can have on a child. It was on a family holiday some 9 months later that Nikki saw her son Kai, 5 at the time, laugh and smile for the first time since his Dad’s death. She realised that there must be so many more children who had also lost a parent in the British Armed Forces but hadn’t had that opportunity to smile again.
She decided to set up the charity Scotty’s Little Soldiers to do just that, to help their children smile.
The charity provides opportunities for the children to smile again by offering holiday’s at it’s Scotty Lodges, gifts at difficult times of the year, special experiences and an amazing Christmas party.
As well as these fun activities the charity also provides access to professional bereavement counselling and a range of grants to help with the children’s personal development. These grants can cover the cost of music lessons, swimming clubs, after school activities, driving lessons and even University tuition fees.
The charity now supports hundreds of bereaved British Forces’ children across the UK, many of whom are still very young and will rely on the activities offered by Scotty’s for years to come.
We are proud to help the charity and hope that you will be too!
