`Incredible’ – the Stroud District Council staff who have raised thousands for suicide charity
Published: Friday, 12 April, 2019
Generous staff and contractors at Stroud District Council have raised £3,460 over the past 12 months for local charity Sunflowers Suicide Support.
Last year the council’s charity group decided to adopt a local charity to be the focus of their fundraising efforts, alongside national charities such as Comic Relief and Children in Need.
Tara Skidmore, chair of Stroud District Council’s charity group said: “When Sunflowers Suicide Support was chosen as our charity of the year we hoped to raise £1,000 on their behalf. We’ve achieved more than three times that amount which is absolutely amazing.”
Fundraising events included a staff rounders match and barbecue, cake sales and a `guess the baby’ quiz.
“We’ve had lots of support from local companies who have helped by providing everything from burgers for the barbeque to raffle prizes,” acknowledged Tara. “One company sent a cheque for £1,000 when they heard about our fundraising plans and an employee at another ran the Stroud half marathon in aid of Sunflowers."
Sunflowers Suicide Support was set up by the family of Randwick resident Pete Morris, after he took his own life in 2016 at the age of 29. Pete’s family found that there was a lack of specialist support in Gloucestershire, so founded the charity with the aims of suicide prevention and postvention - support that helps those bereaved by suicide.
Pete’s sister Abbie Warren said:
“What an incredible amount raised by SDC. We would like to thank you all so much for your hard work fundraising and for all your donations. We have lots of plans for 2019 which this money will support. We have just secured a premises locally where we will deliver our Grief Recovery Courses as well as other additional support. We are also in the process of setting up a family support worker service for children bereaved by suicide. We feel really privileged to have been chosen as last year’s SDC charity and are so incredibly grateful this money will be used to help develop our services and continue to support others, being a ray of light shining in their darkness”
Now the year of fundraising on behalf of Sunflowers Suicide Support is over council staff are in the process of choosing another local charity to be the focus of fundraising efforts.