The public appeal launched by Brownhills community activist and friend of the blog Susan Forster for a real community Christmas tree with lights for Brownhills this year is doing well – there’s an appeal page here and as of now, with collecting boxes, cash donations and various gifts the total is now around £1,200 – just £750 off the final target.

You can donate at this link here or by clicking the screenshot below.

There are collection boxes in many local businesses who have been very generous in their support. Everything helps! There will also be a fundraising stall at the canal festival on Sunday, 19th May 2019 – you can find details of that event here.

There’s a Facebook page for the appeal which will have details of events and progress. Click here to visit it.

Since Christmas trees in Walsall have for many years had to be privately or community funded, if we want one here in Brownhills, we’re going to have to raise the money, and we need to get is sorted by midsummer.

The organising committee said:

The Brownhills Christmas Tree Appeal in partnership with The Brownhills Community Association is looking for help in funding a Christmas Tree and Lights for the Tin Man Island.

Funding for the first year is £1950 and subsequent years in the region of £700.

The community has expressed their desire to make this happen but can only take place with fundraising.

We need to make the first payment to the Council by June

Please help the community and look at the island in December, decked out and shining and think to yourself ‘yeah, I helped do that!’

Every year I receive complaints that Brownhills has no Christmas tree, the lights aren’t good enough and so forth – we even made the national news over it over it a few years ago.

As I promised all those years ago I personally have made a substantial cash contribution myself to this. But we all need to help, and we need to raise a lot of money to carry it off.

Collection boxes will soon be in local businesses, and corporate and commercial sponsors are welcome, as are suggestions for fundraising events.

if you want to contact the committee, you can visit the appeal Facebook Page here and send them a message. You can also contact the committee via the GoFundMe page here (right hand side).

I will be sharing news from the appeal here, and I’d like to publicly than Susan for taking on this huge task – Brownhills has a true asset in this fine lady and I wish her and the appeal well.

If you have any comments or enquiries, comment here, pin me down on social media or email me on BrownhillsBob at Googlemail dot com. Thanks.