No room to move!

We are thrilled to be running out of space in our storage this year due to the incredible generosity of the British public.

From the Shetland Isles to the valleys of South Wales our drivers have roamed the UK this month, picking up collections of coats, blankets and warm clothing for our Keep a Child Warm campaign. Through ambassadors in different locations we have been able to make every trip worthwhile. The Sun newspaper launched a knitting appeal this year which means that on top of the usual donations, we are inundated with beautiful handmade blankets, hats and mittens to help us Keep a Child Warm! Julia is a member of Loving Hands knitting group and is joining the distribution team this year in Moldova. She has worked tirelessly getting the Shetland isles involved in collecting clothing, knitting, fundraising and she has even managed to procure free transportation of the goods from the island to Nottingham thanks to the kindness of JBT. This has been a shining example of what one focused individual can achieve when one put their heart and soul towards the cause. Julia has even been asked to feature on the radio where she spoke about operation orphan’s work and her up-coming trip. Read more on her blog below!

This year we have needed the extra help to collect things from around the country and thanks to volunteer drivers; Rob Wilson, Peter Kourpas, Wilf Rhodes  – for being a huge help in this process. Viv Moody and her husband Jim have collected aid from where they live in Scotland and driven it down to Nottingham themselves in a Luton van. What a team effort.

We have has various volunteers, both individuals and groups/companies who have joined us in the storage to begin sorting through the donations in preparation for our packing week. This is a huge help for us as we will need to get busy to make three shipments ready for sending to Moldova, Ukraine and the incredibly needy victims of the Nepal earthquakes. Special thanks to Rothera Dowson and Smellie Savage and the countless individual volunteers who have helped us with this!

Thanks to Chilwell School whose 6th form will be giving up their time to help us with this packing process. The lovely lasses from Yorkshire (Gail and Jill) who were part of last year’s distribution are travelling to Nottingham to be part of the pack again this year and have collected huge amounts of warm clothing and nappies which they know first-hand will go to a very good home!

There is a huge list of people and we couldn’t name you all but you all know who you are.

Schools, companies, church groups, local volunteers, ambassadors – all over the UK. Thank you for your contribution to Keep a Child Warm. We couldn’t do this without you…

Cyrilyn