SHS corporate volunteers buy Christmas presents for 275 disadvantaged children
News article from December 15, 2017
“We know lots of families who really struggle to buy their children something at Christmas. It’s been amazing to work alongside our corporate partners supplying presents for some of the poorest families we support. The response from staff has been absolutely amazing; the presents provided will be hugely appreciated by children who might not otherwise have something to open on Christmas Day.”
– Kim Steward, Schools Co-ordinator
This year, we’ve had a truly amazing response from amongst our corporate partners to ensure the poorest children we support have Christmas presents. In total, 270 corporate volunteers signed up to buy a Christmas gift for a child!
School-Home Support works with some of the most disadvantaged children and families, breaking down to barriers to learning so children are in school, ready to learn. We believe every child deserves a present at Christmas, no matter their family’s income, and we’ve been overwhelmed with people’s generosity.
A total of 275 children will benefit from a Christmas present this year as a result of this collection – that’s a lot of smiling faces on Christmas Day! Our massive thanks and appreciation to staff who got involved at:
- BlackRock
- Chaucer Plc
- Instinctif
- Liberum
- London Stock Exchange Group
- Nomura
- Relx
“The allocation of children to volunteers, lunch and wrap sessions and delivery of presents to children in numerous London schools has involved a mammoth amount of co-ordination and logistics, but when we know these presents will be hugely appreciated by children and families we are of course, all signed up to doing this again next year with even more volunteers. We’re delighted our staff have been so keen to get involved.”
– Sally Atherton, BlackRock
“Wow! Walked into a 3 big sacks full of presents! Thank you so much!”
– Karen Watch, SHS Practitioner
School-Home Support practitioners have been really busy identifying the children most in need, liaising with teachers and parents and phoning through last minute requests for support. The fantastic feedback from parents showed the value of their hard work: their efforts paid off massively.
“Thank you very much for our gifts and happy new year to all of you!”
– Prendt, a parent
“Thank you for your kindness, thoughtfulness and consideration. Your gift of festive spirit will be the happiness for many children. Merry Christmas to all of you!”
– a parent
Thanks again to our generous gifters and everyone who helped with the organising – you’ve given these children a magical Christmas!