November 2011
Shepheard Neame Donate 1000 Cans & 6000 Bottles to B4B!
Homecoming Party Donations Enabled!
Shepherd Neame, the Kentish master brewers behind the legendary award-winning 'Spitfire' ale, have kindly donated a whopping 1000 cans, and 6000 bottles of their finest.
The distribution is set to be 1000 cans for our boy's return flights on 216's TriStar fleet, with a further 6000 due to be readily available for when they land in Cyprus for decompression. This level of generosity from a relatively small brewer is a huge commitment which underlines how much they value our campaign, and our troops.
For more information on Shepherd Neame and to get involved in their 'Mo Bros' Facebook competition, click on the above images.
The recent return of thousands of troops deployed in Afghanistan was a busy time for 216 Squadron, and Beer for the Boys. Over 600 service personnel were returning from Afghanistan each week on board the RAF Tristars.
This year however, Beer for the Boys has been helped in its work by the charity Support our Soldiers. We are particularly grateful to them for handling all of our online donations. To see the good work of that they do please visit www.supportoursoldiers.co.uk
All of this generosity from breweries enabled us, for the first time, to donate money towards individual unit’s homecoming parties. Ordinarily returning soldiers would have to chip in towards a kitty to buy beer for their homecoming parties at base, however, we were in a position to help and so we donated over £10,000 towards parties in the UK and Germany.
The small gesture of a beer from a grateful public means a great deal to the men and women who are representing our Nation. Very few people will ever get the opportunity to buy a soldier a beer down the pub. This fund enables you to show your support in a very British way. Please go to the donate page on this website, and buy a tired hero a beer.
September 2010
You will notice a new Downloads link at the top of this page that contain new logos! Our thanks go to Rob Henderson of www.caricatureaircraftpictures.com who designed the caricature of the TriStar refuelling the beer glass for free. We're in the process of designing a whole load of new publicity materials that incorporate the logo, so look out for downloadable leaflets and posters here soon. Please feel free to print these off and use them to spread the word about Beer for the Boys!
As well as continuing to offer a free can of beer to every Service Person travelling from Afghanistan to the UK aboard a TriStar, we have recently allocated £10,000 to support a variety of homecoming events. The majority of this went to the Decompression Team in Cyprus to provide each soldier undergoing the decompression process with another free can of beer, but we have also provided funds to support homecoming parties for 40 Commando Royal Marines, the 1st Battalion the Mercian Regiment and 4 Force Protection Wing, RAF Regiment. Brains gave us nearly 2000 cans of bitter that was nearing the end of its shelf life in August, and we were able to pass this on to RAF Benson for their Families' Day. We hope you all enjoy your free beer folks - cheers!
We have received several large cheques from fundraising events recently. The largest of these, a skydiving event at Skydive Weston, raised almost £1,400 and they are holding another one in October. If you feel like giving it a go, visit their website, www.skydiveweston.com, for further details. Hungerford Aircrew Association organised an air day in July which raised over £500 for us, and we have received several donations from branches of the Round Table since an article was published in their magazine, Tabler. This is in addition to the cheques that we still receive in the post and the online donations that arrive via PayPal (which is still kindly hosted by the Yellow Ribbon Foundation). A big thank you goes, as always, to all our donors, but we can always do with more so please keep fundraising!
Several members of 216 Squadron are about to embark on their expedition to drive 2 Reliant Robin cars, which have been decorated to look like TriStar aircraft, from Tamworth to Gibraltar. They are heading towards raising a five figure sum which is a phenomenal achievement, but it's not too late to help them along. Visit their Facebook site (linked from the top right of this page) for further details. We wish them the best of luck for this challenge and look forward to getting a report and some photos from them when they get back.
25 March 2010
Since the last update in January, we have continued to receive donations from members of the public at a rate of around £2000 per month, so thank you to if you've made a contribution. We can always use more though, so please keep spreading the word to family, friends, colleagues, people on the bus, telemarketers and anyone else who you have contact with! We must also thank Grolsch, who made a second donation of over 8000 cans last week, and Greene King, who have donated around 1000 cans of Old Speckled Hen today.
Beer for the Boys is still able to provide a free beer to troops coming home from Afghanistan in several ways. As ever, we offer a can of lager or bitter to passengers on board TriStar aircraft as they fly back from Afghanistan. We have also recently sent a cheque to Cyprus to allow a further free beer to be provided to troops undergoing decompression as they wind down after their 6-month tour of duty in Afghanistan. Units from all 3 Services may also apply to Beer for the Boys for funding towards homecoming parties for service personnel once they return to the UK - if this applies to you we'd love to hear from you (using the details on the right)! We have recently received requests from IX (Bomber) Squadron and Number 4 Force Protection Wing RAF Regiment, and will be dispatching cheques shortly.
12 January 2010
It's been a busy couple of months since the national media coverage. We have been inundated with donations of beer and cash, so thank you to everyone who has been so generous. We would particularly like to thank Arkell's brewery for their beer donation and Fuller's for their continued fundraising. Holt's and St Austell breweries have both offered us bottles of beer, which unfortunately we can't put on the aircraft. Instead, we have put Holt's in touch with 2nd Battalion, the Royal Regiment of Fusiliers (who have strong connections to Lancashire), and St Austell's in contact with 1st Battalion, the Rifles (who have strong connections to Cornwall). Thanks to their donations, the lads from these units (which have both been in Afghanistan this year) will be able to have a good Christmas party.
Cheques have been continuing to pour in from across the UK and beyond, and we have noticed that more and more of them are not personal donations, but the results of fundraising efforts: everything from collections to bungee jumps, raffles to DJ nights. A huge thank you to everyone involved in these ventures; we look forward to more stories of successful fundraising campaigns in 2010.
Due to the amazing response to the campaign, Beer for the Boys is now able to provide another free can of beer to service personnel undergoing "decompression" in Cyprus before returning to the UK. The decompression stop gives troops an opportunity to relax and get used to normal life again after several months in Afghanistan, and your generosity means that they will do so with the aid of another 'thank you' beer.
