MORE than £5,000 has been raised in days and 50 volunteers have come forward to help a 14th century church hit with a £15,000 repair bill after vandals struck.
St Margaret’s Church in Church Lane, Bowers Gifford, was targeted for the second time by teens on Sunday, who smashed stained glass windows, damaged graves and destroyed a priceless organ.
Horrified churchgoers and members of the Bowers Gifford community have rallied around St Margaret’s – with more than £5000 in donations pouring in since Sunday and 50 volunteers coming forward to clean and help.
The church currently remains closed awaiting a start to repairs, with Sunday services now happening in the nearby St Margaret’s School in Bowers Gifford.
Church warden, Nikki Dilorenzo, has thanked the community for the massive show of support and is currently looking into installing CCTV, promising donations will go back into the future security of the church.
She said: “Out of the darkness we are shining, it is incredible and we are blessed.
“We have had people that don’t come to church saying that despite that, they want to help us and they have asked us how to donate and fundraise.
“The mood in the community is a lot of disgust, people are flabbergasted by the state of it and looking at the fundraising page, the response is overwhelming, my phone hasn’t stopped the last couple days.
“This has brought us even closer together, the connection to the church within the community is massive and you don’t realise all of that, it is so nice that the church is for the community.
“It is something that gives us hope and people want the cameras up and the doors back open.”
Destroyed - The church organ (Image: Nikki Dilorenzo)
Nikki added that 50 people have said “we will do anything”, offering there help from building, repair and cleaning to sourcing deterrents like CCTV.
The church was initially targeted on October 29 – with the roof being badly damaged as well as graves.
Nikki said: “The main thing I want to do is show we will put this money into the church, for security and for protecting it and future proofing it.
“We are going to set up a thank you evening and invite people down to personally say thanks.”
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