Final post of the year!! Wow – what a year it has been for us!

Our main thank you has to go to 4Com for choosing us as the recipient of their Isle of Wight Challenge sponsorship – This has enabled us to provide a “new start package” for families who have been re-housed through situations such as domestic violence. We have helped so many families already this year and this will continue throughout 2018 and onwards! It was worth all your blood, sweat and tears (and a broken bone)!

We would like to say thank you to everyone who has donated, wrapped, collected, delivered and sorted all the presents for our referrals this Christmas. We have gifted over 1000 (a thousand!) presents, and 100 food treat parcels. These have all gone to families who have been referred through Social Services, Health Visitors, Police Liaison Officers, Pastoral Support Workers, The Human Trafficking Unit, Women’s Refuges etc. All families have to meet our criteria. These include children in poverty, living in temporary accommodation (normally one room), who have been neglected, or witnessed domestic violence. They will all wake up with a big smile on their faces, and this will hopefully be the start of a better future for them all. Some of the thank you messages we have received – “I received some Christmas gifts from you for my son. I was not expecting to receive anything for myself but I am so grateful for everything. I only had one present ready for him, but now he has so many things to open. I’m overwhelmed by your kindness. Thank you so much.”; “Just wanted to say a huge thank you to your charity for the donations that ******** received today. We were both amazed by the generosity, which has made a huge difference to ****** and her children. This has made her move into their new home much easier.”; ” Thank you so much for all your hard work yesterday, rallying around to find presents for one of our vulnerable families, especially as you were just finishing for Christmas. I really appreciated your efforts in collating Christmas presents and clothing for the children. I delivered the presents today, and would just like to feed back that the mother was completely overwhelmed by the generosity of Ashleys Birthday Bank. She said “I now feel Christmassy” – it was very heart warming to hear that this will make a real difference to the family. Thank you again for this amazing service for our vulnerable families, and I would like you to know it really does mean so much to our families” – We couldn’t do this without all your support, and it is truly humbling to be able to help local families, who otherwise would have a very difficult time. Thank you to you all

Thank you to Wave 105 for providing all these toys and gifts towards our referrals this year – we really appreciate your continued support each year from the Mission Christmas Appeal. Also – thank you to Ferndown Fabrications Ltd for providing their truck, Gina & Jez for collecting the toys, and Sarah for doing most of the wrapping

Thank you so much to J P Morgan in Bournemouth for the massive collection of toys and gifts they have collected for underprivileged families in our local area. These will be distributed over the next few days and will make a huge difference to these families, who have nothing. They will wake up on Christmas morning and have gifts to open, which will also give their parent/s a much needed boost

A massive thank you to Shawn Tayler for all these wonderful toys. Thank you to everyone who donated to his collection. This will bring huge smiles to many faces on Christmas Day!! We have already had tears of joy from Representatives who have collected wrapped gifts for their referrals. We will get these wrapped and tagged next week

Thank you Samantha Dashwood for the £30 Toys r Us vouchers. We have purchased three scooters. They will be going to two young siblings who care for their blind parents and a little boy who’s mum has escaped domestic violence. Thank you so much for your kind gesture

Thank you so much to Graham Dartnall for donating over 100 chocolate treats and selection boxes for the families we are providing for this Christmas. We really appreciate your continued support.

Thank you so much to staff, children and parents at Leaps & Bounds Day Nursery in Winton for collecting toys for our Christmas Appeal

Thank you to St Mark’s CE Primary School for donating crackers filled with sweets and pocket money treats. These will be given to a Social Worker for distribution to needy children.

Today we have had a lovely donation from a couple  -Thanks Nik

Thank you to Charminster Spiritualist Church for collecting gifts for our families this Christmas