Lynn Legion's appeal for £25,000
LYNN and District branch of the Royal British Legion launched its annual Poppy Appeal with a short ceremony in the town centre attended by Borough Mayor Kathy Mellish on Saturday.
A procession of ex-servicemen and local cadet forces marched along High Street and into New Conduit Street, where they lined up to observe two minutes' silence at 11am, with standards lowered.
Mrs Mellish was officially presented with the first poppy by the cadets before they returned to the legion's headquarters in Tower Street for a reception.
Local appeal organiser Gerry Tann said: "We had a good turnout on Saturday. People in town recognised what it was all about and came and talked to us afterwards."
He is hoping to reach the 25,000 target this time after falling just short of 2,000 last year, although he still needs more distributors and collectors.
"We urgently need to recruit more people as many of our current volunteers are retiring from active duty. Add to this the ever-increasing demand on the legion's service and you can see we need your help more than ever," he said.
"We are lucky this year that we have some serving soldiers from Swanton Morley, in the Royal Army Medical Corps, who are coming to help us. They have seen service in Iraq and Afghanistan."
Mr Tann has a team of about eight distributors and 15 helping with the collections, which began in earnest yesterday and continue through to Saturday, November 10. "But I need double that number really," he said.
Collectors will be in most of the supermarkets from Thursday and there will be street collections from Saturday.
About 500 collecting boxes have been put in shops, businesses and workplaces throughout the area.
Anyone able to help can contact Mr Tann on 01553 674953 or call in at the RBL Club in Tower Street, Lynn.
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Weather for King's Lynn
Saturday 04 February 2012
Today
Sunny spells
Temperature: -2 C to 2 C
Wind Speed: 17 mph
Wind direction: South
Tomorrow
Light sleet showers
Temperature: -2 C to 2 C
Wind Speed: 7 mph
Wind direction: South west
