Month: November 2016

We have finished collecting items in Waitrose for the Christmas hampers that we will donate to elderly people living in isolation and those in need in our community.

In total, 19 trolley loads with 3,350 items have been donated! That’s 600 items more than last year.

Most popular were soup (500 tins), crisps (347), tinned fish (226), Xmas puddings (175), biscuits (164), tinned fruit (136), crackers for cheese (129) and tea (147).

16 volunteers helped with collecting, and 18 people helped counting and recording items. A massive thank you to all of you!

Huge thanks to the hundreds of shoppers at Waitrose Wantage, whose generosity and kindness has been overwhelming at times.

Thank you as well to all the Waitrose staff, for looking after our volunteers.

And huge thanks to all at Challow & Childrey Cricket Club, for storing everything and for being so helpful unloading and helping out.

A huge thank you to all the fantastic companies and several anonymous donations who have supported our Christmas hamper appeal so far:

Waitrose
Peter B Ledbury Ltd
Day and Night Assistance
Aspire
The Duplication Centre
Chapman and Co
TSB Wantage
Nationwide
Laura’s Hair at Home
Rowes Costcutter
and Changing Lives
… to name a few.

A simple act of kindness can make a huge difference and is never wasted.

Now the hard work really starts, with 120 Christmas hampers to make up!

We have purchased:
400m of wrapping paper
200m of snowflake cellophane
5000g of shredded paper
120 hamper boxes
120 bows
500m of ribbon
120 Christmas cards
10 pairs of scissors
6 sellotape dispensers and packing tape

All ready to start the mammoth job of making 120 hampers on Sunday 4 December.

Trustees from The Ray Collins Charitable Trust had a busy day on Thursday 24th November helping two great causes.

First Ray Collins, Matthew Donaldson, Tracy Wilson, Laura Beale and Wantage Town Mayor Steve Trinder arrived at King Alfred’s East site to visit students at Beatbox Youth Club. The club is run by volunteers from Sweatbox, for children with learning difficulties and disabilities.

This year’s annual pantomime trip was going to be cancelled due to lack of funds. So Georgina Hicks who helps run Beatbox, applied to our Trust to see if we could help.

The trustees were in complete agreement and didn’t hesitate to fund the trip for twenty-five children and carers. The Trust presented Beatbox £750 to pay for the coach hire, theatre tickets and pizza and ice cream for all.

“All of the children were so excited that their panto trip was now going ahead,” said Ray. “There were lots of smiles on faces, as well as lots of high fives. We were so pleased to be able to help this wonderful youth club who do such great work with all these fantastic students and enable this trip to go ahead.”

Cancer Research

The Trustees and the Mayor then moved on to the Cancer Research shop in Wantage, where we were joined by the team from Specsavers, sponsors of this year’s Race for Life, to present shop manager Debbie Jackson a cheque from this year’s Race for Life and other fundraising events.

Ray presented a cheque for £5,000 which will stay in Oxfordshire and be used for pioneering and vital research to keep up the fight against this awful disease.

“Everyone at the Trust is so very proud to be able to give such a huge sum of money to such a worthy cause,” Ray said. “Far too many people are still losing their own battles with cancer, as we know all to well. In Wantage some of the very best have left us too soon. We must keep up the research to give everyone who is fighting, the gift of hope. Because when you are staring into the darkness of cancer, sometimes hope is all you have.”