Staff at Coopers have been very busy in the lead up to Christmas. After the success of our 2020 Christmas appeal and following suggestions from staff we decided to support not one, not two, not three but four charities ‘Oh no you didn’t!’ I hear you say….. ‘Oh yes we did!’
On Thursday 16th December we held our monthly charity dress down day but with a twist as staff were invited to come in fancy dress or Christmas jumpers.
We raised £115 for Queen Alexandra Hospital’s Christmas appeal run by Portsmouth Hospitals Charity. Portsmouth Hospitals Charity wants to make sure every patient at Queen Alexandra Hospital feels special this Christmas. They are aiming to raised £6,500 to guarantee every patient in QA Hospital will receive a present on Christmas day. Last year this was a present bag includes a toiletry kit and a piece of Christmas cake and will be similar this year.
We also collected items to donate to 3 chosen charities, The Society of St. James (SSJ), PO9 foodbank and Munch Pantry.
We collected ‘Winter warmers’ hats, scarves, gloves etc. for the Society of St. James (SSJ) . SSJ is a Hampshire-based homelessness charity, providing a range of supported living services in Southampton, Portsmouth and across Hampshire. They provide a wide range of support to people from all walks of life experiencing homelessness, problematic alcohol or substance use and mental health problems.
We received a lovely thank you message from Dennis Jones at SJJ
“Thank you to the team at Coopers Fire for donating hats, gloves and scarves to our service users. These items will be well received, and as we are closing in on the coldest winter nights, they will benefit our service users and help keep them warm and help protect them from the elements. Thank you again from all at SSJ”
We donated toys to the ‘Big Wrap’ run by PO9 foodbank’s. FoodBank PO9 is a voluntary group which can collect and distribute food parcels to anyone in need of a little support, unlike other food banks Foodbank Po9 don’t require you to meet any criteria or fill any paperwork, they trust that they are helping each other in this community and meeting everybody’s needs.
And lastly but by no means least we collected tins, toiletries and gift sets for Munch Pantry. Munch Pantry is a community pantry. A Community Food Pantry is the next step from a food bank for families enabling them to make a choice of the food that they can have. In return for a weekly subscription of £5 they can get around £15 worth of food per week, to help their budget go further. Munch Pantry are also hosting a free lunch on Christmas Day and hope to be able to give a gift to everyone that attends.
In total we donated:
Thank you to everyone who got involved and made it such a success.
