TWENTY eight Okehampton residents were honoured last Thursday by the Royal British Legion for their services as Poppy Appeal collectors. Eighteen were present to receive their awards from the Devon chairman, Brian Cumming. Together, they represented 660 years of service to the Legion's primary cause —to support the welfare needs of serving and ex-service community. During the evening, a certificate of appreciation was presented on behalf of the Okehampton branch to Marilyn Poat, the Okehampton Poppy Appeal organiser 2000-2006. At the same time, the branch chairman, Major Ray Rattenbury, handed over a cheque for £1250 to Valerie Hoar, the new Poppy Appeal organiser. This amount represents £1,000 from the branch and £250 from the social club. With further donations promised, Mrs Hoar expects the Okehampton total for this year's Appeal to exceed a record £11,250. More than 50 people attended this occasion, which was followed by a short presentation by the Devon County RBL manager Colonel John Pentreath. Devon has a large serving and ex-Service population. The county boasts 76 branches with more than 2000 volunteer Poppy Appeal collectors including 40 in the Okehampton and district area. Col Pentreath told those present on some of the 900 welfare cases of last year — included helping a former soldier in his 80s to move house, financial assistance to a partially-sighted Territorial Army soldier to go to university, procuring a specialist wheelchair for a paralysed ex-gunner, who was mugged in Plymouth, and securing accommodation and debt relief for a former Army cook. The 2007 appeal, which closes in May, is now at more than £27 million nationally and Devon's collection has already reached £720,000. 'This is a phenomenal figure,' says Val Hoar, "But there is an urgent need for more volunteers to spend a little time late October and early November to collect this money, so necessary to bring relief to so many members of the Army, RN and RAF, past and present."