SkyCall Appeal

This week we’ve finally managed to find some time to count up our final box of donation money for the Cumberland News SkyCall Appeal. For those of you who might not be aware of our efforts this year, it might be worth a short recap.

We take our pop-up espresso bar to a small number of events each year, offering members of the public a cup of coffee in return for a donation to our nominated charity, which happens to be the SkyCall Appeal this year. The Appeal was set up by the Cumberland News with the aim of raising £60,000 for the Pride of Cumbria Air Ambulance.

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The total raised by Carvetii this year now stands at an amazing £4,480 and we are extremely grateful to everyone who dropped a few coins into our collection box. Then again it wasn’t only coins that were dropped into the box. It never ceases to amaze us how many people drop notes into our box, often in return for as little as one or two coffees. This year in particular the cause has touched a number of people and more than one we received a firm handshake and a thankyou from members of the public.

It usually takes the two of us a couple of hours to count all the money, though we’re becoming pretty efficient at it by now. You quickly start to notice trends such as the most common coinage donated so we thought it might be nice to jot down a few facts from one of our pop-ups, which took place at Taste Cumbria, Cockermouth back in September.

In total 2302 items were dropped into the box which included notes, UK coins and a handful of foreign coins! The following facts are based on the total items counted and not the total amount raised.

The most common item dropped into the box was the £1 coin, accounting for nearly 30% of the total.

The least common coin dropped into the box was the 5p, accounting for just 1.7% of the total (which is fine by us considering how difficult they are to count!)

44.3% of the collection was made up silver coins, while bronze coins (2p and 1p) made up 13% of the total.

The newest coin in the collection was a £1 coin from 2015 while the oldest was a two shilling (or 10p) coin from 1965!

We also received a 2 Euro coin, a 50 cent coin (Euro), a 5 cent coin (Euro) and a 10 centimes coin (Switzerland). At current exchange rates the value of these coins was around £1.85

It really doesn’t matter to us how much a person gives as a donation. Every penny will make its way to the SkyCall Appeal (aside from the £1.85 of foreign currency!), and every penny counts. While some of the events we attend are free to enter, at others there is a charge. Add on the cost of lunch and a couple of drinks, and the cost for a family day out can quickly mount up. At least when you finally make your way to the front of our queue, you know you’ll be served the best coffee in Cumbria, will only have to pay what you and your family can afford, and will be contributing to a worthwhile cause.