FLORIDA’S PENNIES:
THE STORY OF OUR LILY HABGOOD FUND

Mrs. Habgood was a charter member of the Holyrood Chapter founded in 1929 in St. Petersburg.  During the Second World War she received the King George VI medal for organizing the “Bundles for Britain” and for outstanding achievement in the “Cause For Peace”.  Mrs. Habgood left Holyrood to become a charter member of York Minster, this chapter being founded February 28th 1951.

In the 1940’s when things were pretty bad and chapters were trying hard to make money, she thought of having little penny boxes in which members could put a penny a day.  She wrote the following poem: 

Drop a penny in me
Feel me heavy grow
In this simple easy way
You will always know
You are aiding someone
Who is old and alone
Who enjoys peace and comfort
In the D.B.E. Home 

Pasted it on one side of the boxes and put a British flag on the other side.  Mrs. Henry Clark, President, brought up the idea at one of the State Conventions.  With the help of Miss M. Sproull and Mrs. J.D. Russell, the Penny Box Fund was started.  The first check presented amounted to $15.  The Penny Box Fund is not a By-Law but is recognized by the National Society.  All chapters contribute to other funds but the Penny Box Fund was started and an independent fund and as a personal thing.  No one is compelled to contribute to the Penny Box Fund but there will always be a Penny Box Fund. 

Originally the money collected in the Penny Box Fund was given to the Home Board to be used at the discretion of the Board and was not to be used in any other way.  Sadly the home in Jacksonville “Bramfilles” had to be closed down and the present home, Mountbatten House was opened in Texas.  Over the years, I have not discovered when exactly, the Penny Box fund was designated to be used for the Memorial wreath for Arcadia and for the memorial flowers for the ACM. 

The money in the Penny Box Fund, which is now called the Lily Habgood Fund in honor of Mrs. Habgood, became in excess of what was really needed for the wreath and flowers placed on the graves of Service men and women who lost their lives in WWII  in Arcadia Cemetery (The British Plot).  After the death of Princess Diana, with all the chapters in agreement, we put the excess money into a Florida State DBE Princess Diana Memorial Fund, the money benefiting local children’s charities remembering the Princess’s devotion to Children.