At Kendal's Eclectic bar, New Year's Eve saw friends, family and regulars raise £434 for the national Disasters Emergency Committee. The bar's owners also thanked the members of staff who donated their New Year's Eve wages to the DEC.

At the Village Inn at Lake Road, Bowness, staff and customers collected for the earthquake victims and then that amount was matched by the owners, to produce a total of £1,640.

There will be a coffee morning held at Kirkby Stephen west train station on Friday morning (today) between 9.30am and noon in aid of the tsunami disaster appeal.

Guests at Kendal's Castle Green Hotel raised £1,125 over New Year and that amount has been matched by the hotel to make a grand total of £2,250.Edith Hearn, who created the knitted villages that make up Moss County, which are now on permanent display at Lancaster Leisure Park, answered a call from Kendal's Westmorland Shopping Centre, and will be displaying the knitted village of Purling downstairs at the centre in aid of the appeal from next Wednesday to Saturday. The village has not been shown in Kendal before.

On Sunday, January 23, starting at approximately 6pm, Mint in Kendal's Highgate is holding an auction of goods. The organisers are seeking donations from local businesses and also from national football clubs. Anyone who can help is asked to call Phil or Jane on 01539-734473.

An impromptu idea by Janet Ross to have a collection around the pubs of Ambleside on New Year's Day has raised more than £700. It came to her as she was in the town's Golden Rule Inn, and with Tony McMichael and a visitor to the area, she toured the public houses taking a collection, and raised the cash in little more than two hours.

In Coniston, a number of events are taking place next Friday, January 14. In the Institute there will be a coffee morning and bring and buy and raffle from 10am to noon; soup and sandwich lunches from noon to 2pm and a new to you clothes sale from 2pm to 4pm. A quiz night will be held in the social centre that night while the youth drop-in centre group will be fund-raising on the same evening.

On Saturday, January 15, an auction of goods, promises and pledges will take place at the Institute. Coffee will be served from 10am for people to look over the sale items, and the auction will start at 11am. Items can be goods (but not large items of furniture or clothes), promises of baking, cleaning, gardening, a meal at home or at a hotel or caf or babysitting. Also on Saturday 15, from 9.30pm, the Dangerous Brothers will play for a dance at the Institute, and the profit from the bar, door and the band, who are playing for free, will go to the fund.