Lakeside Village Store Boosts Charity Donations and Awareness

The Victoria Cross Trust Charity is celebrating a successful year at Lakeside Village Shopping Outlet, with both donations and general awareness having gone up.

The charity, dedicated to cleaning the graves of Victoria Cross recipients and ensuring they are remembered, initially launched a pop-up shop at Lakeside Village in October 2021.

Steve Abell, manager at the Victoria Cross Trust said: “We’ve had great feedback since we opened the store at Lakeside Village and the management team there have been so supportive.

“Part of our charitable aims are to educate and to engage with veterans and by having a base at the centre we are able to do both. So many customers want to find out more about the charity and what we do and lots of veterans come in to see us for a chat.

“The store is run by volunteers from the veteran community and it is wonderful to see the impact and sense of community it has fostered.”

The shop, next to Baytree Interiors, sells a range of remembrance products, including clocks, mugs, flasks and its own range of poppy jewellery and toys to raise funds. Many of the gifts can also be personalised via embroidery at the shop. 

In addition to this, there are displays, including VC medal groups, Women's Land Army artifacts and a motorbike used in the Falklands War. At the Airsoft Range, customers can enjoy a safe and fun target shooting experience supervised by ex-Servicemen.

Funds from the shop enable the charity to continue its work cleaning graves of Victoria Cross recipients all over the UK and educating local communities and schools on the background story of their local heroes.

The Victoria Cross, the highest British and Commonwealth Military award a soldier can receive, is awarded for extreme acts of bravery in the presence of the enemy.

Di Mellis, centre manager at Lakeside Village, said: "We're thrilled that the Victoria Cross Trust Charity has seen such a positive impact from being onsite with us. They have a very popular store with lots of visitors and support from the Doncaster community.

"The Trust is a small charity and receives no direct government funding. All profits from the charity shop go directly towards helping to keep the Trust running and performing its important work."

The Victoria Cross Trust Charity Shop at Lakeside Village is open every day in line with the centre opening hours.

For more information about the Victoria Cross Trust, please visit www.victoriacrosstrust.org