This lovely story has been told to us by Denis and Wendy Whittle, park managers at the Old Hall Holiday Park. It rounds off a fantastic year of charity fundraising by everyone at Old Hall and demonstrates a real team spirit from so many people associated with the park.
Old Hall raises £1,000 for Ukraine after finding James Bond toy cars in charity collection
When Denis and Wendy asked the Old Hall’s holiday home owners to donate toys and clothing to a Ukraine appeal, they didn’t realise they’d end up raising £1,000 as well!
Denis and Wendy were planning to take the donations to local business Charlton’s, which was going to distribute a collection by truck to Ukraine. Everyone on the park had been very generous and lots of lovely items had been left in the Old Hall reception.
One morning, as he was sifting through a new pile of donations, Denis came across a pristine set of mini replica James Bond toy cars.
The 32 boxed and unopened cars had been donated by Dave and June Glasper as toys for Ukrainian children to play with. The set, which featured toy replicas of cars from Dr No through to A Quantum of Solace, used to belong to their son. He had kept them for many years on display in his room but since leaving home no longer wanted them.
As soon as he saw the cars Denis started thinking of the bigger picture. He began to wonder if they might represent more in monetary value for the appeal rather than just being given as toys.
With the Glaspers’ agreement, Denis decided to show the set to Mathewson’s, a family-run classic car auction business in Thornton Le Dale and star of the TV show Bangers and Cash.
Denis’s friend Eddie Fisher said his brother Brian lived close to Mathewson’s, and would be happy to drop the cars round. The following weekend Brian picked up the boxes. A couple of days later he rang to tell Denis the cars had been entered in an upcoming auction.
Denis said: “I thanked Brian for all his help as, at 92, it was very kind of him to make such an effort on behalf of our appeal. I said to him we’ll have to see what happens.”
What happened left Denis flabbergasted. The cars sold for £500!
Denis said: “Eddie and I expected them to go for £50 or so – we never thought another zero would be added to that amount! Dave and June were amazed when I spoke to them as they had no idea the cars were worth anything. ”
The proceeds from the sale of the cars were donated directly to the Red Cross by Mathewson’s, and the amount was matched by YHL Parks, the owners of Old Hall Holiday Park – making a total of £1,000 for the Red Cross Ukraine Appeal.
Sadly, however, by the time the auction took place Brian had unexpectedly passed away, but Denis says he would have been delighted with the outcome.
Denis added: “Brian played an important part in the success of our appeal, as did so many other people. From the Glaspers and the other holiday home owners that donated items, to Eddie, Brian and the team at Mathewson’s , we can’t thank everyone enough.”