RAF Servicemen Support Homeless Services

Members of RAF Waddington supported The Nomad Trust and YMCA Lincolnshire, with over thirty servicemen taking part in charity work across the county.

The Volunteers, who pledged their support as part of their community support programme, were stationed at a number of YMCA and Nomad Trust facilities to support the charities, as well as putting their maintenance skills to the test.

The Nomad Trust is a local Lincoln based charity, which operates the county’s only direct access night shelter as well as two charity shops to support their services.

Retail Manager, Elise Land, explained how ‘both retail teams, staff and volunteers have commented on the focus of each individual on each day. They tackled all the tasks thoroughly and at speed! They were all a real credit’

Maintenance Worker, Jon Eagers, from YMCA Lincolnshire’s The Showroom commented on their ‘brilliant work’; ‘a big thank you to the teams that turned up, it’s great to have such highly skilled volunteers!’

The RAF support enabled a number of exciting developments to take place, including refurbishment within the YMCA Housing department, groundworks at The Showroom, sorting a large volume of stock and supporting retail operations.

A team of four also assisted at YMCA’s Beginnings Daycare Centre, based in Gainsborough. Childcare manager, Zara Smith, was delighted with their work; ‘They painted our community room and hall areas and also dug a vegetable patch for the children to use. The children are very excited about their vegetable patch and they have already decided that they will be planting carrots, tomatoes and peppers!’

‘The people that attended were fabulous. Their hard work has helped to improve the look of the setting and has laid the foundations for some valuable learning opportunities for the children.’

The team expressed their wishes in returning to help YMCA Lincolnshire and The Nomad Trust in the future.

YMCA Lincolnshire and The Nomad Trust’s annual Sleep Easy event is taking place this Friday, with around 100 individuals spending a night sleeping rough raising sponsorship in aid of the homeless.

If you are able to support our cause, visit www.lincsymca.co.uk/sleepeasy for more information.