Shropshire Poppy Appeal aims to beat £500,000
Organisers of Shropshire Poppy Appeal are hoping to hit the half a million pound mark this year.
Hundreds of volunteers have been out in force selling poppies and raising funds and they hope to beat the £478,000 they raised last year.
Jenny Robey, community fundraiser for the Shropshire Poppy Appeal, said the team has started a hashtag this year for people to share their pictures.
She said: “For the past few months we’ve been organising the lamppost poppies.
“We wrote to all the parish councils in Shropshire as it’s something which gained a bit of interest last year.
“The lamppost poppy is a large flat poppy that is attached to a lamppost, and we wanted to give all the councils an opportunity to purchase some and get people thinking about the Poppy Appeal.
“We’ve also started the hashtag #ShropshirePoppies for people to share pictures. This is new for this year.
“We’re really enhancing our use of social media this year which has been fantastic, we’ve had an immense response using Twitter.
“We raised £478,000 last year in Shropshire and we’re aiming for half a million this year.” been purchasing poppy wreaths from councils to individuals who want to remember a family member.
“A lot will be laid at various parades and services this weekend. The wreaths are a very important part of remembrance.”
Jenny added that hundreds of volunteers work together to raise funds for The Royal British Legion.
She added: “We’ve got 48 organisers that look after an area in Shropshire, they are the most incredible people, and each of them have between five and 50 volunteers in the local community.
“There’s hundreds of volunteers across Shropshire.”
There will be a military vehicle outside Sainsbury’s in Shrewsbury and period costumes in Tesco on Saturday.
Jenny added: “We’re encouraging people to come and look at the displays this weekend.”
