Where to take your Christmas cards for this year’s Ipswich Scout Christmas post | Latest Ipswich News

PUBLISHED: 19:31 14 November 2019

Oliver Sullivan

Scouts across Ipswich and Felixstowe are set to be busy this festive period as they prepare to deliver Christmas cards from more than 120 locations in the local area.

Organised by Stuart Whitmore, leader of 4th Ipswich Scouts, the service was first started in 1987 by his mum and dad. But the humble service has since grown into a large-scale operation, with 11 local scout groups now signed up to the project.

Giving Santa and the postie a run for their money, Scouts, Cubs, Beavers, Explorers and their families from the 4th Ipswich, 2nd Ipswich, 18th Ipswich, 31st/9th Ipswich, 1st Ipswich 1st Claydon, 1st Martlesham, 1st Kesgrave, 1st Grundisburgh, 1st Westerfield and 7th Felixstowe groups will be delivering from November 25 to December 10.

This year, the Scouts will be spreading festive cheer in more than 2,500 streets in Ipswich, Felixstowe and the surrounding areas, including Westerfield, Witnesham, Trimley and Kirton.

You may also want to watch:

And the process could not be simpler – those wishing to send a card to a loved one just needs to write a card and place it in one of the Christmas post boxes along with 30p.

Mr Whitmore said: “100% of the money we raise goes straight back to support our 11 Scout groups.

“This is a real community service and will save you more than half the price than if you were to post a card usually. When it costs 62p for a second class stamp, we think the service we provide is a really good deal.”

The Scouts were able to begin delivering cards in 1987 after a change of the law, which aimed to stop Royal Mail holding a monopoly on mail delivery by allowing charities to deliver Christmas cards for one month in the run up to Christmas Day.

Mr Whitmore added: “We endeavour to deliver all the cards we receive that have a full address. We would like to take this opportunity to thank everyone who supports our Scout groups by using the service and especially the businesses which allow our boxes to be placed in their premises and hope that ever more people will give us a try.”