Belles of the ball ring up £3,500 for Maidenhead FoodShare and Alzheimer’s Dementia Support

A branch of the Women’s Institute has raised £3,500 for Maidenhead FoodShare and Alzheimer’s Dementia Support, writes Ava Hone-Smith.

The Littlewick Green Evening Belles were formed in 2017 in response to a demand for later meeting times than the Littlewick Green WI daytime branch. Since then, membership has increased from 18 to 42.

The Evening Belles rotate the charities they fundraise for every few years based on a voting system, but in recent years, local charities have been their main priority.

Lucy Churchill-Khennache, a four-year member of the Littlewick Green evening Belles, said: “I don’t think there’s as much funding into the local charities as there is of the national ones – and these two charities in particular do a lot of outstanding work locally.”

She also said many of the members know from personal experience the work that ADS do, and added it is an ‘amazing’ charity.

Fundraisers the Belles organise often include raffles, bingo events and, most recently, a WI exclusive garden party raffle and quiz.

During this, the Belles were awarded two £750 cheques – a large portion of the final sum of money that will soon be donated to ADS and the Maidenhead FoodShare.

The Belles also encouraged businesses to contribute pieces to the raffle for these two ‘fantastic’ charities.