Thank you all so much!

This year we were requested a total of 4189 selection boxes from 14 different social care organisations and 15 other community groups.

This request has grown by a large amount compared to previous years. With the 20 corporate donors alongside all other individual donations, we were able to fulfill 100% of requests. Among the 20 companies that donated, 9 of them also wanted to wrap and each organised their own wrapping days where we provide all necessary kit for the activity. Some corporate donors include,

The Silver X Group

A huge thanks to Silver X who continue to support us by providing free storage for humanitarian aid (for other projects like Keep A Child Warm and Crisis Response). This Christmas they donated and wrapped 265 selection boxes. Amazing!

Enva

Enva continues to support Forget-Me-Notts’ Easter and Christmas appeals and this year they have been hard at work collecting all 580 selection boxes which they dropped off to us just in time for the UoN Cheerleaders wrapping day.

Ikano Bank

Another huge thank you to IKANO Bank who continue to support Operation Orphan in various ways throughout the years. From volunteering on Packing Days to fundraising for our emergency response, their support is invaluable.

This Christmas they donated and wrapped 513 selection boxes.

Minster FB

This is the first year that Minster FB supported our Christmas programme. They were absolute rock stars and helped us by collecting and wrapping selection boxes and cutting wrapping paper as well. They donated a total of 782 selection boxes. This is simply incredible!

This year, the community support has blown us away and so we would also like to say thank you to all individual and community donors, each box that you donated represents a vulnerable child who will now be able to wake up on Christmas morning with a gift to unwrap.

Unfortunately we were not able to get a picture of everyone who donated, but we would like to say a huge thank you to all to helped support this programme by bringing boxes to our office or donating financially online, without your help we wouldn’t have been able to achieve our goal of 4189 gifts to vulnerable children during this festive season.

University of Nottingham Cheerleader society

University of Nottingham Cheerleader society also continued the tradition by holding a wrapping day just before the first distribution where they were able to wrap over 1000 selection boxes! They went above and beyond, helping offload the van, wrap boxes, cut paper, helping allocate each selection box and tidy up at the end. Thank you all so much!

Schools getting involved!

This year a few local schools have chosen Forget-Me-Notts as their charity of the year and have supported the Christmas appeal by collecting and wrapping, it is so amazing to have young people involved in the programme as it is so relevant to current times and troubles for children similar ages to themselves. Thank you to The Lanes Primary School, George Spencer Academy and Archbishop Cranmer C of E Academy who all donated selection boxes.

Throughout the Christmas appeal, our volunteers have all been hard at work cutting paper in preparation for group wraps. A huge thank you to you all, you are amazing!

As well as all of those who donated we would like to say a huge thank you to the social workers, community groups and schools, all of which will go on to distribute these lovely gifts to children that are less fortunate this Christmas and to many will be their only gift or one of very few. Thanks to these amazing groups, children can wake up on Christmas morning knowing that they are not forgotten.

This has been my experience of our Christmas selection box programme and I would like to say one last thank you to each and every one of you who donated, wrapped, and spread the word, none of this would be possible without all of the amazing support. Have a merry Christmas and a happy new year!

Hefin 🎄