Lincoln College students have been filling shoeboxes with gifts and toiletries for armed services personnel who will be spending Christmas away from their families.

They presented the shoeboxes to army cadets from Lincoln’s Abbey Detachment yesterday (Tuesday 25^th November) to send to the troops serving in Kabul, Sierra Leone and areas of the Middle East.

Lynn Train-Brown, GCSE Pathway Lead at Lincoln College, said: “We were approached by the cadets who used to hold their meetings at our Monks Road campus. They still feel very much part of Lincoln College and we were happy to help with their appeal.

“The project has helped our students form stronger links with the local community and the cadets. It has also had a very positive impact on team building within the group as they’ve had to work together to collect all of the donations.”

Shoeboxes for Our Heroes is a nationwide appeal which has been operating for over three and a half years. The project collects shoeboxes packed with DVDs, books, toothbrushes and toothpaste, notebooks and pens and sweets which provide invaluable support to British troops away from home.

Sergeant Instructor Kayleigh Tucker couldn’t be prouder of the efforts the cadets have put into the Christmas project.

“The aim behind the scheme is to provide those serving overseas during the festive period with as much moral support as we possibly can,” she explained.

“It is impossible to imagine how hard it is for servicemen and women to be so far away from their families, especially at this time of year, so it is our mission to ensure that serving soldiers have something to brighten their day this Christmas.

“The cadets have included ‘blueys’ in the boxes, which are letters they have written themselves. We have included the detachment’s email and postal address in the hope that the cadets will receive a reply.

“They have worked tirelessly, organising the event at Lincoln College as well as completing a five-mile run to raise funds to buy the gifts.”

Ends

Notes to Editors
About Lincoln College:
• Lincoln College is the largest educational institution in the county with 10,000 students across three campuses in Lincoln, Gainsborough and Newark.
• It is the largest provider of business training and skills in Lincolnshire providing training for around 1,200 businesses in Lincolnshire and Nottinghamshire.
• The college is rated Outstanding by Ofsted and has a wide range of full, part-time and short courses for students aged 16 and above, including university-level courses.

About The Lincoln College Group:
• Founded upon a concept of ‘synergy’, The Lincoln College Group comprises a number of like-minded organisations with a shared purpose of providing exceptional education, training and related services to their students.
• Currently providing secondary, further and higher education, the Group includes Lincoln College (with its campuses in Lincoln, Newark and Gainsborough and operations in China) and two secondary school academies: The Newark Academy and The Gainsborough Academy. It also encompasses Deans Sport and Leisure, a commercial sports centre based in Lincoln City Centre.
• Lincoln College International, a project to develop and run three Colleges in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is the latest addition to the Group.
• The Lincoln College Group is also the lead sponsor of the Lincoln UTC which opened in September 2014.

For further information please contact:

Kate Strawson
Director, Shooting Star PR
kate@weareshootingstar.co.uk
01522 528540
@KateStrawson