'Fantastic weekend' sees pub raise £2,000 for homeless vets
KIND-HEARTED pub goers joined a landlord and his young son to hunker down in the in the beer garden for a weekend – and raised £2,000 for “inspiring” homeless veterans.
Tom Parol, landlord of The Lord Reresby pub in Thrybergh, hosted the charity event in aid of Help 4 Homeless Veterans.
He said: “This was an idea for myself and any volunteers to sleep outside in our beer garden with nothing more than a sleeping bag for the full weekend.
“An ex-military customer of mine, Andy Warburton, was interested and massively helped me with organising this.
“We worked alongside Help 4 Homeless Veterans charity chief executive officer Steve Bentham-Bates who was a great help and the stories he told us were inspiring.
“In total there were seven volunteers which included my ten-year-old son, Theo Parol, and we had a visit from Sarah Champion MP, too.
“We also had entertainment on for the customers all weekend with a live singer and karaoke where they could donate to sing.
“It was a fantastic weekend with us raising £1,750 but that amount has now risen to almost £2,000.
Earlier this year The Lord Reresby held a fundraiser night in aid of Start-A-Heart 24/7 which raised more than £4,000 towards the installation of a defibrillator, portable life saving device, elsewhere in the village.
Bramley resident and former Airman Steve Bentham-Bates of Help 4 Homeless Veterans is also encouraging people to support the charity’s Buy A Brick campaign which aims to raise enough to purchase a house in Rotherham to use as short-term emergency accommodation.