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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

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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 CHADD

Barnardo's Time 4 Me Dudley Young Carers

Black Country Food bank Hope Centre

Loaves and Fishes Kids United

Roberts Primary School Little Saints Nursery

Dudley BLISS Miscellaneous Families

Welcome Group Halesowen St Thomas's Community Network

Little Hands Children’s Centre Summit House Support

Colley Lane School Timestep Community Hub

Butterfly Children’s Centre Wrens Nest Community Centre

Kates Hill & Sledmere Children’s Centre Woodside Children’s Centre

Bromley Children’s Centre Brierley Hill Children’s Centre

Stourbridge Children & Families 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.