Big festive thank you from Shropshire charity

Age UK Shropshire Telford & Wrekin would like to say a big festive thank you to local companies and individuals who have helped to brighten up the lives of local older people in the run-up to Christmas.

The holiday season has been given an extra sprinkle of yuletide fairy-dust for the people our charity supports, thanks to the generosity of a major home furnishings retailer, the members of a local church, a printing firm, a Rotary Club, and the public.

‘We’ve got a few special words of thanks to say,’ said Heather Osborne, Age UK Shropshire Telford & Wrekin’s Chief Executive.

‘To begin with we’d like to say a very special thank you to Dunelm in Shrewsbury and Dunelm in Telford, and to all their brilliant staff and brilliant customers and everyone else who has contributed to help us brighten up people’s lives in the run-up to Christmas.’

The Dunelm store on Shrewsbury’s Sundorne Retail Park was part of a Delivering Joy Christmas campaign, with the aim of embracing the gift of giving and helping deliver joy in local communities.

The idea of Delivering Joy is that customers visiting the store pick a tag from the Christmas tree. Each tag features the name of a local individual and an idea for a gift. The customer then buys the gift, or makes a gift using their crafting skills, and then they drop that gift off at the store. The gifts are later distributed as appropriate.

Kayleigh Swainson, Deputy Store Manager, said: ‘We started this initiative in 2020, and I’ve been involved in it from the start. The company came up with the idea and it’s been rolled out to over 180 of our stores across the country. It’s so good to be involved in something like this. We really put smiles on people’s faces.’

Heather Osborne added: ‘So that’s what happened at the Dunelm store in Shrewsbury and people were incredibly generous. It’s been fantastic.’

Meanwhile, other organisations added to the gift appeal in a variety of ways, and we want to send them a huge thank you:

• Shropshire Printing for sponsoring gift bags and twine
• Dunelm Telford for donating £250.00 worth of Christmas gifts
• Telford Smile project for providing gifts to three of our Telford day centres
• Ironbridge Rotary for donating £500.00 to spend on gift items for our Telford day centre gift bags
• Members of St. Mary’s Church in Shawbury who ran a collection for Christmas gifts.

Heather said: ‘We were so overwhelmed with the generosity of these organisations and the public this year, it has been amazing to see and honestly, everyone has just been so great. The spirit of Christmas is clearly alive and well.’

If you’re part of an organisation that would like to get involved in this campaign next year or support us in anyway, we would love to discuss how we can work together to make a difference to local older people. Call Age UK Shropshire Telford & Wrekin’s Fundraising team on 01743 233 123 or email fundraising@ageukstw.org.uk