My lovely Mum decided she'd have a go at collecting a few bits and if she couldn't complete a whole sack, would contribute her extras to mine. Well mum popped in to a charity shop, who donated to her a small rucksack and a bag of spoons (good start!) and she carried on her search of goods.
Today there is a market on in our home town of Waterlooville, so Mum thought she'd have a peruse for items and came across a stall called 'All-Cam' Military surplus goods. Mum stopped to have a natter and see what they had, but when the guy who worked on the stall told her the prices of the items, mum politely declined with them being out of her price range. The guy was then interested in to why mum wanted such items and so she explained 'The Rucksack Project' to him. Immediately he offered mum a bag and sleeping unit for just £10, which she snapped up!
Mum, still chatting with the guy, who explained he was a Buddhist and very interested in the movement as his religion puts him clearly in the 'do good to get good' frame of mind at all times; the stall holder came over to join them. Between the guy and mum, they explained to Keith Allen, the owner of 'All-Cam' about the project and what mum was trying to achieve. Keith asked my mum if she had any other shopping to do, and could she come back to him before she left Waterlooville.
Upon mums return to the stall, she was shocked and delighted to find that Keith had filled the one rucksack mum had bought with warm clothes and indeed gave her two further rucksacks filled with thermal leggings, clothes and coats! So that was it, mums mission complete, after not being sure she'd manage to complete one bag, she now had three!
Keith explained to my mum that he, his wife and children had been homeless and lived on the streets for a time and he knew how much these rucksacks would mean to a homeless person, just for some extra warmth at this time of year. Mum left Keith and his colleague and bought three thermal flasks from Wilko for £7.50 for the three and ta-da! 3 rucksacks for £17.50! Mum also raided hers and my sisters cupboards for some extra food bits to pop in the bags.
Mum and I took the three rucksacks she had and the one I'd made and shared all the items out between the bags. For example I had a packet of 4 toothbrushes - so we split them and put one in each. We added some extra food items, added tshirts, shared out the thermal leggings, put a coat in each and were done!!!
TTFN, Sammy xx
Fantastic story Sammy !
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