North Wales Housing (NWH) staff wanted to give something back this Christmas and set up an organisation-wide drive for Food Bank donations.
In the week running up to their Christmas lunch employees dropped off donations at their Llandudno Junction office.
Behind this initiative were NWH’s ‘Rising Stars’ Ben Hamer, Carwyn George and Hannah Dalton, a training programme for promising employees.
Hannah Dalton, explained:
“At NWH we’re passionate about helping others. The rising cost of food is a challenge for families and Christmas can be particularly difficult and we wanted to help in some way.
“The response to the donations campaign has been phenomenal, it has supressed everyone’s expectations and we are extremely pleased with the volume of donations”.
The mountain of donations was dropped off at Ty Hapus Community Centre Community Foodbank in Llandudno before Christmas.
Jayne, Centre Manager at Ty Hapus said:
“Thank you to North Wales Housing staff for their contribution, this will help a number of families over Christmas.
These donations will be used to put together a tailored parcel giving enough food to provide 3 meals for 7 days. We also firmly believe that everyone deserves a Christmas, and include ‘luxuries’ that we may take for granted e.g. mince pies, Christmas puddings, chocolate.”
If you would like to donate items to the Ty Hapus Food Bank you can drop them off at Ty Hapus Community Centre, Ffordd Penrhyn, Llandudno, Conwy, LL30 1HB
Cakes were flying off the shelves this September at Macmillan Coffee Mornings across our resident schemes.
Our Older Persons schemes take up the challenge every year, enjoying tasty cakes over coffee. This year they raised an amazing total of £1,497.50!
The Metropole in Colwyn Bay also raised a brilliant £125.00 by hosting a coffee morning in their flats.
The World’s Biggest Coffee Morning is Macmillan’s biggest fundraising event for people facing cancer. Macmi ask people all over the UK to host their own Coffee Mornings and donations on the day are made to Macmillan.
Well done everyone who got involved and raised all the money.
North Wales Housing (NWH) has raised nearly £7,000 for local charity St David’s Hospice as part of their charity drive.
The total amount has been raised by a steady stream of activities that have taken place since April 2016. These have included taking part in a Dragon boat race, summer fete, a Christmas fair, their own take on Bake off as well as an online Facebook auction.
Emma Williams, charity group Chair explains:
“Our fundraising at NWH goes from strength to strength every year. We have exceeded our fundraising target again this year, raising much more than the set target of £4,000.”
“We do this in our own time, so the commitment by staff, the Charity group in particular, is really appreciated. We have a lot of fun along the way, and it’s been a great way for everyone to get to know each other”
Kathryn Morgan-Jones, Business Development Officer at St David’s Hospice, praised the housing group for raising so much money for the local charity. She said:
“We are incredibly grateful to the North Wales Housing staff and their residents for their generous support; it really does make a huge difference to the lives of local people who are affected by an advanced illness. Their motivation to make a difference has helped us to make each day count for our patients and their families.”
“Last year we cared for more than 1,000 people from within our local communities and we expect this number to rise significantly, in the future which will only increase costs. We require over £3 million each year to provide a clinical service and with only a 14% contribution from the NHS we are, and will continue to be, reliant on the good will and fundraising efforts from the public.”
North Wales Housing selects a new charity each financial year. The charity for 2017/18 will be announced soon.
North Wales Housing’s homeless service received a donation of £339 from Waitrose Menai Bridge’s Community Matters scheme this February.
The Community Matters ‘Green Token Box’ scheme, launched by Waitrose in 2008, enables shoppers at their store to choose a local charity to support. Each shopper receives a token to place in a box of the good cause they would most like to donate to.
The cheque for £339 was presented to Aled Bebb, Resettlement Support Worker within the Outreach and Resettlement Team who work with street homeless in and around Bangor.
Aled explained:
“Thank you to Waitrose customers who choose to support our charity. We rely heavily on donations such as this to be able to help keep the service going so this will make a big difference.”
“The service we offer to homeless provides crucial support to help stay warm and dry, offering food, clothing items and emergency camping provisions such as tents and sleeping bags.”
If you would to make a donation please call in at our St Mary’s Hostel on Love Lane in Bangor, or call 01248 362211 to discuss further.
North Wales Housing hosted an online auction via our Facebook page from November 2016 to fundraise for St David’s Hospice.
81 items were listed in total, varying from tickets to see Man United match, a child’s bike, chocolates and a make-up set.
The highest bids have been placed and the auction raised an amazing £1,095.10 for St David’s Hospice.
Thank you everyone who bid!
The Team at our Repairs office have been busy re-creating their own Bake-off to fundraise for St David’s Hospice.
Every Monday a contestant brought in a cake they had baked. The first 8 people to buy a slice received a score slip and scored the cake out of 5 and left a comment.
The last cake has been baked, the scores counted and the winner is… Stephanie Clueit, Assistant Director Homes! In second place was Rebecca Kennerley and in third was Angela Croghan.
The initiative helped raise £82 for St David’s Hospice.
The Llys y Coed Reception has had a Winter Wonderland makeover!
Manager Cheryl Haggas and friends have decorated the reception of the Extra Care Scheme in Llanfairfechan in aid of The Motor Neurone Disease Association.
Cheryl explains:
“We decorate the scheme every year; it really helps us get in the Christmas spirit. This year we decided to use it as a way to fundraise for a charity.”
“Visitors are invited to donate if they appreciate the festive scene. We’ve raised over £50 already; we’ve got a calendar full of events before Christmas so I’m sure this will be a lot more by the end of December!”
North Wales Housing’s first Christmas Fair was a great success, raising over £740 for local charity St David’s Hospice.
Adults and children came along to enjoy the festive day at Tŷ Hapus Community Centre in Llandudno, taking the time to browse the many beautiful craft stalls and playing the many games on offer.
Santa and Elsa from Frozen also made a guest appearance and enjoyed talking to all the children about their long list for Santa!
Emma Williams, Chair of NWH Charity panel said:
“Thank you everyone who helped make the day happen; a lot of hard work went on behind the scenes. Thank you also to everyone who came along and spent their money! All the proceeds from the day will be going to St David’s Hospice, our charity for this year.”
Kathryn Morgan-Jones, St David’s Hospice:
“I am absolutely delighted that the North Wales Housing’s first Christmas Fair was a great success. The many stalls with crafts, games and Christmas gifts attracted so many supporters and raised such an impressive sum for St David’s Hospice.”
“Having the support of the North Wales Housing makes an enormous difference, enabling us to help many more patients and families from Conwy, Gwynedd and Anglesey who are affected by advanced illnesses.”
“I look forward to continuing to support the North Wales Housing staff with their fundraising efforts and, on behalf of all the patients, families, volunteers and staff; I would like to extend a massive thank you.”
St Mary’s homeless hostel in Bangor sent out an urgent appeal for donations as supplies ran critically low for their homeless gate service this September.
North Wales Housing’s Older Persons department and residents came to their rescue and pulled together to collect donations.
Eirlys Parry, Head of Older Persons, explained why they decided to help:
“When we read about the shortage in our newsletter we really wanted to help as a department. Charity does begin at home and we really wanted to help our colleagues. The Older Persons tenants are also really good at fundraising for different charities throughout the year so we knew they would do well.”
“Residents across North Wales came together to collect, raiding their own collection as well as friends and families. The end result was amazing, everyone was extremely generous. We collected bagsful of clothes and boxes overflowing with food.”
The Team handed over the mountain of donations to St Mary’s Hostel on Love Lane, Bangor in October.
Rob Parry, Scheme Manager at St Mary’s, was ecstatic the donation:
“We are extremely grateful to the Older Persons department and the residents for their generosity and would like to thank them for their support.”
“The gate service offered at St Mary’s to the street homeless in Bangor rely heavily on donations to keep going. With the cold winter months approaching our stock was worrying low and this donation was much needed.”
Find out more about donations required here. If you would like to donate any tents, sleeping bags, warm clothing or food please drop off any donations at St Mary’s, Love Lane, Bangor or contact 01248 362211 for alternative arrangements.
Forget the Great British Bake Off, September was Macmillan World’s Biggest Coffee Morning time!
The Coffee Morning, held on 30th September, is Macmillan’s biggest fundraising event for people facing cancer. People all over the UK to host their own Coffee Mornings and donations on the day are made to Macmillan.
A number of North Wales Housing residents hosted their own coffee mornings. Residents from Older Persons schemes Cae Garnedd, Y Gorlan, Taverners Court and Hafod y Parc all got their aprons out and baked some tasty treats for the UK wide fundraising campaign, raising nearly £1,500 for the cancer charity.
Taverners Court coffee morning was a joint effort friends of Taverners from a neighbouring block who currently have a family member suffering from cancer.
Susan Gough, Warden at Taverners Court said:
“The event was really well attended by residents, friends from the neighbouring blocks and local community and residents and staff from Brigadoon Care Home in Llandudno.”
Well done everyone who took part and attended – we look forward to next year already!!
