In Lombard Street, in the centre of Abingdon, there is a Charity that takes you into the heart of the Sumatran rain forest.

Sumatra has lost a lot of its tropical rainforest through deforestation. One of the many species that is endangered is the Orangutan. The SOS Orangutans organisation want people to ‘Help us protect orangutans in the wild, where they belong.’

Visit https://www.orangutans-sos.org/ to see how people in Abingdon can help Orangutans in Sumatra.

Thankyou to Sumatran Orangutans Society – SOS – for the images taken by Andrew Walmsley.

On the Market Place on Wednesday a group of people from Radley Sports Centre were cycling as part of their Challenge Yourself in January – Radley’s Iron Man Challenge. Their distance on Abingdon Market Place was 112 miles.

They have set themselves targets for swimming, running, and cycling every day of January, and raising money for the Alzheimer’s Society. More on facebook.

On Abingdon Market Place there were soldiers from Squadron 33 of the 4th Regiment of Royal Logistic Corps, based at Dalton Barracks near Abingdon. They had come along with a heavily armoured vehicle which people could have a look around.

33 Squadron have been challenged by their commanding officer to raise £33,000 over ten months for two charities: the Anthony Nolan charity that seeks to save the lives of people with blood cancer; and ABF – the Soldiers Charity. They were cycling on static bikes the equivalent of the distance between Abingdon and Inverness, where the Royal Logistic Corps are also based.

Also on the Market Place were Abinit! litter picking volunteers. Some of the soldiers helped them too, as well as taking part in various other energetic activities.

The 33 Squadron fund raising will culminate in a cycle ride round all the Royal Logistic Corps bases in the UK.

There are Abingdon Scouts and Guides Christmas post boxes, where cards should be posted in the locations shown on the poster above.

The price to send a card is 25p and all money raised will go to the Scouts, and Guides.

The service will be on offer from now until noon on Monday, December 16th. The box shown above is at St Nicolas Church.

St Nic’s is open 10-4:30 Mon-Sat for Cards for Good Causes. There are cards from most charities you could think of, as well as advent cards and candles, decorations and wrapping.