THE major fundraiser for Portland and District Legacy will take place on Thursday and Friday.

The group will hold its annual Legacy Week appeal from 8.30am to 4.30pm on Thursday and Friday outside Woolworths on Percy St.

All the usual and popular items will be for sale – bears, pens, badges, key rings and armbands representing each of the services.

Funds raised will go towards the care of about 30 widows and families of those who have served in the armed forces.

Legatee and former group treasurer Lynne McNaughton, group secretary Mike Pitman and local resident Chris Grayland (whose two uncles were killed in World War I) will also be taking part in an even larger fundraising event in a couple of weeks.

September 11 is when the Legacy torch relay passes through Hamilton, and the pair (the group is a branch of Hamilton Legacy) have been invited to participate.

The relay marks 100 years of Legacy, and started in Pozieres in France on April 23, finishing up at the Shrine of Remembrance in Melbourne on October 13.

Legacy hopes the 50,000 km relay – where thousands of torchbearers carry 1.2kg torches for a short distance – will raise $10 million for its work.

After Legacy Week and the relay, Portland and District Legacy’s next big event will be its Christmas lunch in December.