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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Businesses get involved Again this year we were approached by businesses wishing to support the appeal and in even greater numbers. I had a very enjoyable November and December visiting various companies and collecting gifts, money or in most cases both! Geoff and Sue Hill have always supported the appeal and kicked off the appeal with a £1000 donation to get us going. It wouldn’t be Operation Santa without Brett and the girls from Blaze Hair Kingswinford. They adopted Operation Santa a couple of years ago and Brett is a prolific collector of toys, gifts etc. from clients, friends, family and anyone who’ll donate. He is on a mission to reach as many disadvantaged local children as possible and received the inaugural ‘Business Supporting the Community Award’ at the 2013 Dudley Volunteer Awards, in recognition of his contribution to supporting Operation Santa. This year he managed to collect a jaw-dropping 1679 toys, gifts and food items! Thomas from T Heath Light Haulage, who has also supported the appeal for many years, sent us a cheque and then organised a quiz night and swear box in the Portway Inn, Kingswinford, sending us a second cheque to boost the appeal. New businesses got in touch to support the appeal too. Eriks, Ice Blue and Bellway Homes asked their staff to bring along toys and gifts to support the appeal and others, such as Mason’s Metals, very generously gave us financial contributions to help with the appeal in addition to presents. We are so grateful for their support and appreciate the fact that they have chosen Operation Santa to donate to.
Mason’s Metals load up their car with Christmas goodies
Erik’s haul of Christmas presents
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Emma, Jane and Matt from Ice Blue
Bellway Homes
Tim and Tina Pace who are local Kleneze distributors, also approached us enquiring how they could support the appeal and arrived at the office laden with boxes of new toys. They had so many donations, they had to borrow a minibus! Tim is keen to promote the appeal more widely next year to other distributors and gather even more toys. Here they are with their pile of boxes
Dudley MBC Staff – threw themselves into supporting the Appeal yet again, with a collection point set up at the Council House and collecting an amazing number of gifts, food etc., amounting to 995 items.
Local people also supported the appeal with enthusiasm too, dropping donations of toys, books, games and food into various collection points and the Dudley CVS offices.
Other supporters are listed overleaf:
££££££££ The finances swelled with donations from members of the trusts, the public and the business community, including: Geoff and Sue Hill T. Heath Light Haulage [two separate cheques] Mason’s Metals Tim and Tina Pace from Kleneze Stourbridge Rotary Club Plus donations from local people
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Supporters 2013 Below are just a few of the fabulous people, organisations and businesses who generously supported this year’s Appeal Amanda Wood
John Pestana
Bellway Homes
Julie - What Centre
Brett & his girls [Blaze Hair]
Keith Rogers
Dudley & District CABX
Learn Direct [Fran]
Dudley Bliss
Masons Metals
Dudley MBC
Miss Leeson
Dudley MBC staff from across the borough
Mr & Mrs Baldwin
Eriks
Mr Heppelwhite
Geoff & Sue Hill
Mrs Barker
Halas Homes
Nicklins
Hob Green School
T Heath Light Haulage
Ice Blue
Tim & Tina Pace [Kleneze]
Jim White & North Dudley Neighbourhood Watch
The What? Centre
June Bowen
Wolverhampton Wanderers FC
Just as last year the blog was used to raise the profile and keep people informed about how things were going. As donations were made and people got involved, regular updates were made to the blog.
Christmas Parties Operation Santa wouldn’t be the same without Christmas Parties and these are a great way to make the money donated go a long way. Thanks to the generous donations we received an amazing 853 children and young people enjoyed a Christmas Party. We have some very cute photos of the little ones at Little Saints Nursery in Dudley tucking into their full Christmas Dinner and these are on the ‘Thank You’ page on the Operation Santa blog. Operation Santa also helped to support Christmas parties for families, many of who wouldn’t have had a Christmas Dinner otherwise. The Hope Centre in Halesowen does an annual Christmas lunch for families from the local estate and have sent us some great photos of the kids enjoying the party. These are available on the Christmas Parties page of the Operation Santa blog.
Final Figures 4577 items of food, toys and gifts were donated. 5430 children and young people enjoyed something from Operation Santa I think this can be counted as an unreserved success and hopefully it will be matched or better still, exceeded in 2014.
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Recipients Each year we are asked where the donated items go and the answer is quite simply to a child or young person in need. We work with local voluntary, community, faith and statutory sector groups, who support vulnerable and disadvantaged children, young people and families across the borough. The gifts collected often help to make Christmas for them, when otherwise it’s likely they would receive nothing or have little to celebrate. 3rd Brierley Hill Scouts Barnardo's Time 4 Me Black Country Food bank Loaves and Fishes Roberts Primary School Dudley BLISS
CHADD Dudley Young Carers Hope Centre Kids United Little Saints Nursery Miscellaneous Families
Welcome Group Halesowen Little Hands Children’s Centre
St Thomas's Community Network Summit House Support
Colley Lane School Butterfly Children’s Centre Kates Hill & Sledmere Children’s Centre Bromley Children’s Centre Stourbridge Children & Families Centre
Timestep Community Hub Wrens Nest Community Centre Woodside Children’s Centre Brierley Hill Children’s Centre
Huge Thanks Thank you to everyone who contributed to this year’s appeal and let’s hope this year’s is another unqualified success, ensuring the Dudley HOPE legacy lives on.
Eileen Fielding Volunteer Centre Development Officer [aka Santa’s not so little helper]
February 2014
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Thank You letters and pictures It’s good to know that your donations are appreciated and we have had some lovely thank you letters from the organisations, children and their parents and below are a few lines taken from some of these.
“May I thank you for your support in relation to our Christmas Activities at ***. The donated money and presents were spent on providing a Christmas celebration for vulnerable children and their families. The children’s smiles and body language were bubbling over with joy.”
Âg{|á çxtÜ {tá uxxÇ t w|yy|vâÄà à|Åx yÉÜ ÑtÜxÇàá tÇw ytÅ|Ä|xá ã{É {täx áàÜâzzÄxw y|ÇtÇv|tÄÄç àÉ uâç yÉÉw tÇw ÑÜxáxÇàá yÉÜ à{x|Ü v{|ÄwÜxÇ? áÉ {tä|Çz ÅÉÇxç àÉ áâÑÑÉÜà à{x ÑtÜà|xá tÇw ÑÜxáxÇàá {tá uxxÇ Üxvx|äxw ã|à{ zÜtà|àâwx yÜÉÅ à{Éáx ã{É {täx uxÇxy|àxw yÜÉÅ à{x wÉÇtà|ÉÇáA FC v{|ÄwÜxÇ |Ç à{x ÇâÜáxÜç uxÇxy|àxw yÜÉÅ t àÜtw|à|ÉÇtÄ V{Ü|áàÅtá ÅxtÄ ã|à{ Ñâww|Çz tÇw EG ~|wá yÜÉÅ ^|wá hÇ|àxw tààxÇwxw à{x V{Ü|áàÅtá ÑtÜàçA TÄÄ Éy ã{|v{ ãtá áâÑÑÉÜàxw uç wÉÇtà|ÉÇá yÜÉÅ WâwÄxç Vif bÑxÜtà|ÉÇ ftÇàtAÊ From Parents Here are just a few of the lovely comments we have received from parents:
Âg{tÇ~ çÉâ yÉÜ à{x }|zátã ÑâééÄxáA jx ÄÉäx Ñâàà|Çz à{x Ñ|xvxá àÉzxà{xÜ tÇw àtÄ~|Çz tuÉâà à{x Ñ|vàâÜxáA  “Thank you for the book about building vehicles. We read and talk about it together.”
“Thank you for the wooden construction toys for my son. He has done nothing but play with them. He loves it!”
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From Organisations CHADD provide support for those going through domestic abuse and their children, right across Dudley borough. This is what Operation Santa is all about, making a real difference to local children and their families. Here is an extract from their thank you letter and the full letter is available on the THANK YOU page of the Operation Santa blog.
“ … on the 18th December I had a call for help from a colleague in another service needed - a woman with an 11 year old child, had no food and nothing at all for Christmas. She had terrific injuries; her ex-partner had been arrested and had left the family with no access to money until Christmas Eve. Although a food bank parcel was collected of tins, the money you provided for CHADD meant that we were able to purchase £20 of fresh items for them to make meals with (her injuries made opening tins very difficult). She cried, sobbed and thanked me so many times, hugged me and wanted to say thank you to those who have enabled her child to eat properly until money would be available. Her child’s Christmas wish list was also taken care of thanks to local help including Operation Santa. (CHADD are now involved offering Outreach support & the support groups). CHADD works directly with those in our community who need assistance and as you can see your commitment to women (men) and children experiencing domestic abuse is really valued. Your supporting partnership to CHADD has assisted helping to make a difference to 85 families (85 adults and well over a hundred children) over Christmas -those who need a friendly supporting ear or a little help financially & maybe some gifts in kind. There are a selection of lovely cards from some of the present recipient and photos from Christmas parties, but I have uploaded these to a gallery on the Operation Santa blog. Please feel free to visit http://wp.me/P1ZP0K-nj and take a look.
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