Operation Santa Report 2013
Every little Elfs … As I sit down to write this year’s report following another successful Operation Santa, I am struck by the fact that despite the appalling economic climate and people feeling the squeeze on their finances, especially at this time of year: we have still managed to co-ordinate another successful toy appeal. There are daily appeals for support for children from overseas and many people feel they should support these causes, but what about local children, here in our area? There are local children who don’t get a hot meal, somewhere warm to sleep, or who are caring for their mum or dad! That’s the beauty of our annual Operation Santa, it’s local people and businesses, giving for local kids and trying to make Christmas a special time! Thanks to their generosity we have reached an incredible 5430 children and young people from right across Dudley borough. We launched the Appeal with help from Wendy, Wolfie’s girlfriend from Wolverhampton Wanderers FC, and the Deputy Leader and staff from Dudley Metropolitan Borough Council, who were active supporters last year. Donations started pouring in immediately from members of the public, local businesses and the collection point at Dudley MBC Council House was popular too. So many things arrived at Albion Street that I lost sight of the carpet in my office for about 8 weeks. At one point, I returned from a meeting and opened the door, to find every available square inch of floor space and desks etc. were covered in toys! This continued for the whole period we were running the appeal and donations appeared right up to the office closing for the Christmas break. We also had numerous phone calls from people who supported families in need and several local families were given gifts and food from the appeal as it progressed. As in previous years the Operation Santa blog was used to promote the Appeal and as the donations climbed, updates were posted on the blog and more and more people started following the progress. We had 100 hits on one day alone and lots of comments and sharing via Twitter and Facebook. Why not visit: www.operationsanta.wordpress.com to read about our adventures this year and be ready to follow next year’s appeal by signing up for updates? To access the latest uploads, you would just need to click on the ‘OPERATION SANTA’ link in the red toolbar at the top of the page.
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