Firm spreading joy with filled shoeboxes
A Blandford firm has been busy packing gifts into shoeboxes to spread a little joy this Christmas. Total Energy Services staff have spent weeks planning and gathering items such as pens, note pads, toys and cuddly bunnies as well as sanitary items including flannels, toothbrushes and soap.
The boxes were then packed and will be dropped off to the local church, where they will be checked by volunteers and prepared for their international voyage to a child in need. On arriving at their destination, the shoebox gifts will then be handed out to the local children. Managing director Robert Lamb said: “It brings us immense pleasure to be able to spread a little joy this Christmas, in a year that has been difficult for us all us – especially those in less fortunate circumstances than us in the world. Having recently become a father myself, I am so glad we can help those who need it the most.”
If you would like to get involved or find out more information you can either contact Total Energy
Services – it is not too late for a Christmas delivery! Call 01258 472132 or email holly@totalenergy.co.uk.
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GILLINGHAM
2 High Street, SP8 4QT 01747 824738
SHAFTESBURY
Greenacre House, Salisbury Road, SP7 8BS 01747 858968
STURMINSTER NEWTON
4 Market House, Station Road, DT10 1FG 01258 472073
funeralcare.co.uk
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By Nicci Brown Retired local journalist Brian Moore, who gained national fame as the author of Mike Oliver, King of Steam, telling the life story of the founder of the Great Dorset Steam Fair, has spent the last nine months working on a new book, Three Old Men Go Fishing. The story of a four-day fishing trip undertaken by three 80-yearolds (and a dog!) is due to be published soon by Lydden Vale. He said: “Firstly, the idea of three 80-year-olds taking a trip of over 200 miles to the wilds of the Welsh outback did not particularly appeal to my sense of adventure. I was content to spend the whole of the week relaxing in the orchard with a good book. The second reason was, I am not a fisherman.” It’s a story of a last ‘adventure’ of three old school friends and delightful, sometimes hilarious, reminiscences of their lives.
Brian, who lives in Hazelbury Bryan, also in 2011 published Ernie Amey, the Million Pound Man, the biography of a farm worker brought up in Farnham who became the champion of agricultural workers and towards the end of his life lived in Blandford, then finally at Castleman House, where he died in 2014. Brian said he was delighted to have recently been called out of retirement to write features for the re-launched Dorset Life magazine, which suspended publication earlier in the year due to the covid-19 pandemic. Brian said: “It was quite a surprise when John Newth, the proprietor and publisher who is acting as interim editor, telephoned, but I was absolutely delighted to contribute. “It just goes to prove that there is life after 80 and as long as you can hold a pen there are opportunities out there.”
