What happens at the end of the Season of Goodwill?
Should it end in December when the festivities are over? We don't believe so. Help is needed all year round.
Christmas is a very important time of year for charities, and we are reminded by flyers, printed envelopes and advertising to think of others less fortunate during the festivities. Throughout December, generosity flourishes and many people are keen to do their bit. But what happens when all the Christmas trees, baubles and fairy lights are packed away in the loft for another year?
January can be a long, grey, gloomy month, stretching that December pay packet and trying to make ends meet. There is no turkey left for sandwiches and the bills are paramount in our mind as we put our heating on full blast to keep us warm.
That’s why we thought this year we would save our food donations until now, to help cheer up and support those less fortunate and help when things get tough for families to make ends meet.
After such a wonderful response to our Secret Santa present donations in December we couldn’t wait to work with Elaine McCarthy, the Centre Manager at the Cliftonville Community Centre again so we arranged to deliver our food donations as soon as we were all back in the office and delivered them directly on Wednesday.
The team at Oakwood homes were so generous once again, and we went armed with carrier bags and boxes full of nonperishable food, toiletries, and cleaning products to donate.
Elaine was immediately on the phone talking to families in need, to arrange for them to come and collect some items and took some of the toiletries to a family that were homeless and in her care for warm shower, hot food and some clean clothes.
We are now looking forward to working with the Community Centre at Easter to provide Easter Eggs to the children we bought presents for at Christmas making sure we include some ‘free from’ eggs for children with allergies and intolerance's.