I imagine many of you will know that our caravan was stolen this week from the farm where is was stored. Obviously this is a huge shock to us and  it has been difficult to believe that anyone would do this. If this is the first you are hearing of it then I know it will be a shock to you too.

 

Firstly I would like to say a huge thank you to everyone who has sent us messages and offered support. We are deeply grateful and it has truly helped us to keep our spirits up as we try to come to terms with what has happened.

It feels so very harsh that a charity should be targeted in this way but it has happened so we must now find a way to move forward.

Just to summarise the situation so far…

The caravan was parked behind a barn and the hitch was locked. The gate to the farmyard was locked, as was the gate to the adjoining paddock. It was this gate that was vandalised. The thieves then drove across the paddock behind the barn and somehow hooked it up and made off. This happened on Sunday or Monday night.

It feels as though the whole of Suffolk has been looking for it but our guess is that, because of the branding, it was hidden up very quickly.

It was insured but here is our problem…. This caravan was very special to us because it had never been used before. It was 4 years old but had remained unsold. Stowmarket Caravans were great supporters of our charity and gave us a wonderful deal. The layout was perfect and it had years of wear in it which was good because we really do hammer them a lot harder than a private owner would. However we were only allowed to insure it for the price we paid and sadly we will never be able to get the same deal again. We are not even sure that the claim will be met and we do know that either way its set to take weeks and weeks.

Preliminary investigation shows that we need to find around £23k to replace the caravan and all its contents ( tables, chairs, mugs, coffee making equipment, games, uniforms, ferrules, travel rugs, leaflet racks, signs and our own leaflets which will need to be reprinted)

You will understand that we need to get back up to full strength ASAP so we have concluded that the best way forward is to accept all the generous offers of support and start a fundraising campaign. If and when the insurance comes through we will put that towards the running of the service.

We hope you will think this is a fair and ethical way for us to move forward.

Ipswich Building Society will collect donations at all nine branches and are going to create posters to announce this. East of England Coop has very kindly set up a crowdfunding page https://www.justgiving.com/crowdfunding/ruralcoffeecaravan

On behalf of the whole team, sally Fogden our founder and Chairman and I, thank you again for your, frankly, passionate support and for making us aware of how much our Coffee Caravan means to you. We will come back stronger than ever because of this.

Please see the pictures below which shows the distinctive sign writing.

Best Regards

Ann

Ann Osborn

Director

Rural Coffee Caravan www.ruralcoffeecaravan.org.uk