A man has been helping the community, ever since he saw a distressing Facebook post.
Steve Whelan, 55, from Wallasey has been helping members of his community get the rewards they deserve for seven years now, after he saw a Facebook post about a poor elderly woman who had been robbed. Steve said: "Everyone in the comments were all just saying the person responsible should be strung-up and locked up for life.
"I just thought instead of getting angry let's do something for the woman, let's have a collection and so we did. We got some money together for her, I don't remember how much it was - £100 or £200, maybe more - but it went a long way.
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"I remember thinking, that was easy.
"We then did it again for a girl who'd had her pram robbed and we got her a new pram, with people just chipping in whatever they could. I thought then let's just get a Facebook group together, and we can all donate something small, like 50p a month, and we can all decide who gets the money together."
Steve then set up the Wirral Copper Jar, a Facebook group where anyone from the area can join and nominate those who they think deserve it. Nominees are then voted on by the group and whoever gets the most votes is given some cash to reward them or help them out if they need it.
Steve added: "It's all [the members'] decision. Honestly I think we're one of the only charities in the country where the members decide everything.
"There are certain winners that make you sad, like if a child is sick and needs something to cheer them up. But there are certain ones that are rewarding in themselves, like when someone's done something amazing for the community - I love to see those people get rewarded for what they do.
"It's like magic, people will just say here's 50p, here's a quid, then someone will hand over a tenner or say here's £20, or a fiver, and it all just adds up.
"It's honestly so easy to run and it helps the community a lot. You get to meet lots of really nice people.
"There are a lot of community heroes that people don't know about, there's loads.
" I’m retired, so I’ve got the time to run it. But it's not that difficult - I think there should be copper jars throughout the country - I’m surprised Liverpool hasn’t started one."
You can find out more about the Wirral Copper Jar on their Facebook page here.
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