Village rallies in aid of church grant bid

Recycling used printer cartridges and selling unwanted gold are among the efforts being made in a village near Sleaford to help raise funds for church improvements.
Silk Willoughby Church collecting cheese wrappers and printer cartridges to raise money for a new toilet and servery in the church. L-R Janet Johnson  - church warden, Sue Mathieson - PCC secretary, Lizzie Potter - on-line fundraising organiser, Lavinia Hughson - church member.Silk Willoughby Church collecting cheese wrappers and printer cartridges to raise money for a new toilet and servery in the church. L-R Janet Johnson  - church warden, Sue Mathieson - PCC secretary, Lizzie Potter - on-line fundraising organiser, Lavinia Hughson - church member.
Silk Willoughby Church collecting cheese wrappers and printer cartridges to raise money for a new toilet and servery in the church. L-R Janet Johnson - church warden, Sue Mathieson - PCC secretary, Lizzie Potter - on-line fundraising organiser, Lavinia Hughson - church member.

The varied activities have been taking place in aid of St Denis’, in Silk Willoughby, and its bid to raise a huge £80,000 to install toilets and a servery.

At the forefront of the campaign is Lizzie Potter, of Quarrington. Speaking to church warden Janet Johnson in November, she learned the church aimed to raise £17,000 by early next year in order to match fund a grant application.

However, with Covid-19 restrictions, efforts had ground to a halt, with them unable to hold events such as their Crafts by Candlelight.

Lizzie offered to deploy her online business skills, selling people’s various unwanted donated items on Facebook on the church’s behalf.

Alongside this, she organised a recycling scheme, sending off used printer cartridges in return for cash and recycling cheese wrappers with recycling company TerraCycle for more funds.

She said: “People have been saving their wrappers and we have three drop-off bins for the recycling, at Rowan Drive, The Horseshoes pub and the village hall.

“We also sent flyers around the village for people to donate their old and damaged gold and we have been selling that on too, so we are currently around the £4,000 mark in the space of a month. It has been a really busy few weeks.”

The church also switched its annual Christmas raffle to online.

Held on Monday, it featured prizes donated by some generous local businesses.

Lizzie said: “The whole village is involved with this and it’s really nice to see the community coming together.”

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