Plaque honours ShelterBox donors (From Falmouth Packet)

Plaque honours ShelterBox donors

1:00pm Friday 21st September 2012 in Helston

ShelterBox has been chosen as one of just 15 charitable projects in the UK to be awarded a yellow plaque recognising the huge contribution made by people who leave gifts in their wills.

Thanks in part to gifts left in wills, the Helston-based charity has provided 120,000 boxes of disaster relief aid over the past 12 years, to help vulnerable families after disasters such as the earthquakes in Japan and Haiti.

The majority of these are packed at its warehouse at Water-ma-Trout, before being transported to disaster-affected areas. The yellow plaque was unveiled at the warehouse on Tuesday by David Crook, who has been a volunteer with the charity for five years and involved in more than 350 support events.

He said he was “very humbled” to be asked to perform the unveiling. Inspired by the blue plaques awarded by English Heritage, the Remember A Charity yellow plaques scheme was launched this week.

The first 15 plaques will be unveiled at charitable projects and initiatives around the country that have been made possible thanks to donations left by supporters in wills.

Each year, gifts in wills bring in almost £2 billion – the equivalent of 19 Comic Relief campaigns – and account for 30 per cent of the income of the UK's top ten charities.

Tim Bunting, head of ShelterBox UK & Ireland, said: “It's a great honour to be one of the first charities in the UK to be awarded a Remember A Charity yellow plaque. Gifts in wills from our generous supporters are vital for us. Projects like this simply would not exist without them. But most of all it recognises the contribution of our supporters who have included us in their wills.”

The scheme also recognised the National Coal Mining Museum in Wakefield, Cancer Research UK, the Guide Dogs' Training School in Atherton and its National Breeding Centre in Warwickshire.

Rob Cope, director of Remember A Charity, the consortium of 140 charities behind the scheme, said: “Our new yellow plaques recognise the legacies of all the supporters who have left gifts to charities in their wills, after taking care of loved ones, and helped the good work live on.”

For more information visit www.rememberacharity.org.uk.