Aid To Ukraine & The Duckworth Lorry

18 January 2023

As many of you know, our collection grew to such an extent that we ran the risk of overwhelming the local collection points we had pledged to support. Wanting to do everything we could, we decided to hire our own lorry and driver to take the aid ourselves. We hope you enjoyed tracking its progress, and that it made you feel more connected to the journey. Though our lorry is back home safely, we of course recognise the same cannot be said for those forced to flee or fight, and that many will be experiencing unimaginable suffering. Our thoughts will remain with all those affected, for some time.

The Journey

28th March, 22:19

We have arrived at the distribution centre in Poland. This has been an amazing journey, driven by the generosity of local businesses and of the local community. We hope you enjoyed following your aid to Ukraine, and that it made you feel closer to the great work we have all contributed to. Thank you to all the individuals that dropped off what they had, or what they could buy for the cause.

28th March, 19:25

We have arrived in Germany! We'd like to offer a massive thanks to the drivers, who make this all possible. Good luck for the final stretch of your journey!

27th March, 21:00

We've arrived in Dover, just a 9 hour wait for our fantastic drivers before they're back on the road. No hold ups so far and everything running smoothly.

27th March, 13:05

Your aid is on the road!! Good luck to our drivers and we all wish them a safe journey. It's great to finally know all your support will soon be put to good use.

We are blown away by the generosity we've seen first hand throughout our collection, never did we expect our small, internal gathering to expand into a project we are so proud of. It's difficult to find the right words to express how grateful we are for your support, and how grateful we feel to be a part of such a special community. Thank you.
The Duckworth Team

Departing from Weston St Mary's Church, Spalding

Our lorry is scheduled to set out this weekend! Thank you to the tireless work of those at Weston St Mary's Church who have been putting all your collections into their final boxes and piles, ready to head to Ukraine. Scroll down to find out more about our journey, and how such a fantastic cause began.

Our Collection Point

Having been contacted by a close friend of the business, we sat down to decide what we could do to do our bit for Ukraine given the space and the facilities we have. A small collection point was formed, staff were informed and we put a message on our website and our Facebook page knowing we would have customers and followers, keen to show support, without means to do so. Little did we know, this would reach over 12,000 people.

We started in our spare sales office, an area far too small to take all the donations coming our way.

This is a good opportunity to give a huge thanks to our Sales Admin team and our Service Advisor teams for their work over the last 2 weeks, organising items, labelling boxes, picking up items, packing the trailers and coming in extra days to ensure everything was sorted and distributed as efficiently as possible.

Moving into our hand over bay allowed customers to back right up to the doors, for us to fill our trailer (which we did 8 times!!) and for us to have room to sort the eclectic range of items that were kindly donated.

We send our warmest thanks to: The Shoulder Of Mutton, BM Stores, Smudge Fitness Spalding, The Parish Church of St Peter & Paul, Kirton, Sports Bike Shop, More Than Polish, Sleaford & District Lions, TB Containers, Young Dons FC, Dunelm Boston, Skegness Grammar, Skegness Academy, Frampton Church (thanks for the sausage rolls), Chestnut Street Cafe, Ruskington Primary School, Fenwick Bros Ltd.

We had some touching moments on the way. The students of King Edward VI Academy filling a Discovery from their collection, when Fold Hill dropped off a van load of dog food and we needed a human chain to unload it, and a local man, Digger, offering to drive the lorry.

We send our warmest thanks to: Horbling Primary School, Pygott & Crone Sleaford, Jakemans Sweets, Burgh Primary School, The Salon, Hawthorne Medical Staff, Wolfies Wine Bar, Arga Solutions Ltd, Hall Farm Park South Kelsey, Pol's Taxi's, Morrisons Pinchbeck, Market Rasen Rugby Club, Heckington Medical Centre, Zest Print