Hopefully they are posting the appeal widely e.g. cycling organisations,fishing ,walking etc,otherwise it will only be the people interested in the canals for floating boats that will see it.being unemployed at the moment i would much rather go and help physically with the repair than contribute monetarily.
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The kids can have the seeds because it's an insignificant sum that could be worth a fortune in goodwill.
Better still if they gave them the seed to grow the plants that line the canals and see there hard work growing there.