HOME-START WeyWater is asking local folk to support one last push toward achieving the final £860 needed to gain maximum benefit from an unexpected Christmas gift.

The Four Acre Trust has offered to match fund every donation in excess of £500 received by Home-Start WeyWater throughout the months of November, December and January.

Founded in 1995 by John Bothamley with profits from the building industry, the aim of the Four Acre Trust is to “support charities that give individuals – mainly children and young people – help in making the most of their lives.”

Current programmes include supporting schools’ extra-curricular projects, early intervention work, as well as international eye and water projects.

The Trust has supported other Home-Start organisations in the past with their early intervention work and has offered Home-Start WeyWater the opportunity to seek match funding of up to £10,000, which must come from new donors. It should be noted that donations from fundraising events are excluded.

According to the Home-Start WeyWater trustees, the group has managed to raise just over £9,000 toward its target and is working hard to achieve the remaining £860 before the cut-off date of January 31.

Home-Start WeyWater is an independent charity whose volunteers are trained to offer friendship and support to parents who are finding it difficult to cope. This helps to prevent family crisis and breakdown and is available to any parent who has at least one child under the age of five.

The Four Acre Trust money will be used by Home-Start WeyWater to train new volunteers and to continue supporting local families with emotional and practical needs.

A Home-Start WeyWater trustee: “This is a real window of opportunity for us to generate core funds and attract new sponsors.”

As the Home-Start WeyWater scheme is independent it is responsible for raising the £80,000 per year needed to provide the service. In the past funding has come from many different sources including local authorities, local councillors, The Army Central Fund, and local groups such as the Lions and Rotary. A major source of funding has been via The Big Lottery and Children in Need however this avenue appears to have dried up, and Home-Start WeyWater has found itself having to become more reliant on its own fund raising efforts.

In a bid to help Home-Start WeyWater achieve its £10,000 Four Acre Trust goal, a number of pubs in Alton, among them The George, The Crown, The Eight Bells, The Queen’s Head, The Alton House Hotel, The Market Hotel, The White Hart, The Railway, The Bakers’ Arms, the King’s Head, The White Horse, Alton Hops, The Swan and The Wheatsheaf have rallied around by placing collecting tins on their bars, the aim being to raise at least another £500 for the charity.