A message to Red Cypher supporters sent on behalf of General Sir Richard Barrons. President of Red Cypher
Dear Supporters
I hope that most of you are aware that Jeff Smith, his two daughters Victoria and Jessica and his grandsons Joshua and James recently undertook a challenge to ascend Ben Nevis in under three hours to raise funds for Red Cypher. They achieved their aim and to date have raised over £4000 for our Charity. This is a fantastic effort, and I offer my heartfelt congratulations and thanks to the family. Jeff has been a Red Cypher stalwart for many years and although no longer an official in Red Cypher, he continues to provide incredible support and encouragement.
Although the fundraising campaign is now closed, you can still donate to Red Cypher using the following link https://cafdonate.cafonline.org/23841#!/DonationDetails
I will take this opportunity to reiterate that Red Cypher is the Regimental Charity for 3rd Regiment Royal Horse Artillery.
The Charity provides financial grants to assist past and present members of the Regiment and dependents in conditions of need, hardship, or distress. This can include assisting families to visit loved ones in hospital, financial help towards electric wheelchairs for disabled veterans or dependants, helping to pay for accommodation, bills, or transport. Just recently, the Charity has helped a serving soldier to return to Fiji for his father's funeral.
We also provide grants to maintain comradeship and contact between past and present members of the Regiment, fostering mutual friendship and providing support towards social gatherings for them such as the Annual Past and Present Members Reunion Dinner and the post Cenotaph Parade Lunch on Remembrance Sunday each year to ensure these gatherings are as affordable as possible to all members.
The Charity also financially supports the Past and Present Members Standard Parties who do such a wonderful job of representing us at the funerals of comrades. The Standard Parties give their time freely and as many of you will have observed uphold the tradition of excellence expected of 3RHA. The charity provides coffin drapes, Standards and accessories plus cover travel and associated costs for the parties and the Remembrance Broaches presented to loved one.
All monies received by the charity are used to support our charitable work. We utilise charity grants and charity discounts for our IT systems, and our greatest annual administrative outlay is getting the yearly accounts signed off for submission to the Charity Commission. This leaves over 98% of the donations received available to support our past and present members and their dependents in line with our charitable aims.
We do not employ staff, so rely on the goodwill of our Trustees who give their time to manage the Charity, supporting both the serving and veteran community and their dependants whilst ensuring compliance with Charity Commission guidelines. This can mean many hours with accounting, regulatory reporting, processing applications, updating the website, meetings and catch ups plus liaising with supporters to create donation platforms to support our work. These are just some of the elements needed to help the charity to function, and without all our Trustees, both past and present who have created, built, nurtured, and developed the Charity to what it is now, this would never have been possible.
Please remember that Red Cypher is your charity, and we are here to help. If you are in need of assistance, please reach out. All requests for assistance are treated with the utmost confidentiality.
