Superstore packing boosts district Scouting

BAG-packing for customers at Kidderminster supermarkets in the run-up to Christmas produced a tremendous result for Scouting and Operation Covert.

An army of helpers manned the tills at Sainsbury's, Morrisons and Franche Co-op for eight days and brought in a total of £13, 340.18.

Hundreds of Scouts, older Cubs, leaders and volunteers from 11 different Kidderminster groups took part in the mammoth operation.

Each group keeps the money they raise to help fund their activities throughout the year - and Operation Covert volunteers picked up £610.98 from their session.

Bag-packing co-ordinator, Mark Searl, said: "Over the last 10 years this has become the major fund-raiser in the district's Scouting calendar and we have to thank the Wyre Forest public for their generous support.

"We find people are very supportive of the Scouts - many say they were in the Scouts when they were younger and love to stop and share their memories. An amazing number of families have been involved in Scouting in various ways and it is a nice experience for us.

"A lot of the Scouts actually volunteer to do bag-packing because they really enjoy the inter-action with the customers."

He added: "We are also grateful to the store managers and their staff who make it all possible. I think they see it as an extra customer service at such a busy time of the year.

"When some customers are spending up to £150, it does help to speed up the flow at the checkouts, so everybody wins - the stores, the customers and the Scouts."

Most of the donations come in £1 coins and small change but, on occasions, £10 notes and £5 notes have been dropped into collecting buckets.

Weekends tend to be the busiest bag-packing times and the most productive shift over the past year collected £1,000 in a three-hour Sunday session at Sainsbury's.