We Love Lending A Hand
Inspiring real life
SOOTY MAGICS UP SUPPORT
This year marks the 150th anniversar y of the Royal National Institute of Blind People (RNIB) and also the 70th bir thday of a cer tain puppet.
“Ever yone loves Sooty,” laughs Vicky Todd, as she describes her voluntar y role distributing and collecting the familiar counter top RNIB collection boxes. “The kids love him and even grown men in some of the clubs will say, when I go to collect a tired-looking box, ‘You’re not taking that Sooty away, we’ve had it for years!’
“I star ted volunteering with RNIB twelve years ago after seeing an adver t in the newspaper. After spending the years since my retirement keeping an eye on my mother, it appealed to me as a way to occupy myself. I cer tainly diidn’t want to end up cleaning the house ever y daay for something to do. “I take Sooty boxes to around 550 sites covering a large area of Nor th East EEngland and I use a rota ssystem to ensure that eeach site is visited at least eever y six months, making aadditional trips if they are nneeded. When I return home I open up the boxes, count the money and bank it. I keep records of ever ything and I also send out receipts. Since I star ted doing this I have collected £178,000 for RNIB through the boxes! Geordies are ver y generous.
“This role suits me per fectly because it is flexible and you can do as much or as little as you want, fitting it in around whatever else is going on and also in relation to the weather forecast for the week. I do the banking whenever I have time. It gets me out of the house and I’m actually in and out of shops more often than I care to mention, even though I actually hate shopping. While doing this I have met so many lovely people and struck up many friendships.
“All charities seem to be struggling for people to help and I would encourage anyone to have a go at a voluntar y role. Helping a charity like RNIB cer tainly makes you appreciate that there are a lot of people who are a lot worse of f than you. I’ll be helping them for as long as I’m able to carr y on.”
To find out more about volunteering as a Sooty box collector for RNIB, visit WWW.RNIB.ORG.UK/SOOTY
“I have met so many lovely people and struck up many friendships”