Prestigious Carrington Drum awarded to junior soldiers
21 June 2010
A year of exceptional fundraising for ABF The Soldiers’ Charity saw Junior Soldiers from Harrogate rewarded with a prestigious national prize for their efforts on behalf our troops.
In the presence of General The Lord Guthrie President of ABF The Soldiers Charity and former head of British Armed Forces, the junior soldiers serving at the Army Foundation College in Harrogate were awarded The Carrington Drum a much sought after trophy at a ceremony held at Wellington Barracks, London for raising over £72,000 on behalf of The Soldiers’ Charity.
The Drum is awarded annually to the military unit that raises the most cash for ABF The Soldiers’ Charity,
It is the first time Harrogate has received the top award, despite being runners-up three times in the past four years. This year the College raised the fundraising bar considerably by collecting over three times the amount raised by the winning unit last year.
Chief Executive, Major General Sir Evelyn Webb-Carter said: “I congratulate everyone at the Army Foundation College in Harrogate who were involved in this remarkable achievement. This is a very well deserved award and their citation was one of the best since the creation of the Carrington Drum.”
“I also thank the Army Foundation College for their dedication to this cause over the years which helps so many soldiers and winning the Carrington Drum is a fitting climax.”
Speaking from his barracks in Harrogate, the AFC’s Commanding Officer, Lieutenant Colonel Steve Ocock, explained: “Throughout the year we got the Junior Soldiers to conduct over forty fundraising events, all done in their own time, at weekends and in the evening.”
“The reason we were able to raise so much money was due to the direct generosity of the people of Harrogate and all of the local North Yorkshire towns. We would like to send our heartfelt thanks to them on behalf of The Soldiers’ Charity for all of the fundraising they have allowed us to do.”
“The charity has been running for many years and provides a huge amount of support to individual soldiers, ex-servicemen and their families. It is in effect the Army’s personal charity and therefore we thought it was the most important one for us to support and for us to teach the Junior Soldiers about.”
The College’s Peninsula Company led much of the fundraising efforts by organising a range of events including sponsored parachute jumps and marching the length of Hadrian’s Wall.
Junior Sergeant James Morley from Peninsula Company, said: “It’s absolutely fantastic to win. It is really great to see people taking note of what we we’ve been doing and the money goes to the soldiers who are really struggling.”
“Our platoon covered the equivalent distance from Afghanistan to Iraq by either rowing, running or cycling in Tescos in Leeds. It took us 36 hours and morale was really, really high. People were coming from left right and centre to find out what we trying to do.”
Meanwhile members of 15 Platoon completed a cross-county adventure race in Nottinghamshire. Junior Sergeant Connor Vian said: “It was hard work indeed but we raised roughly £3,000 by getting our families and friends to sponsor us and everyone was very supportive. Not a lot of people hear about The Soldiers’ Charity, but they do a lot of work for us so we’re just repaying them by doing a lot of work for them.”
