As the big day arrived and everyone sat down for their Christmas dinner, I was shattered following the excursions of the last 4 weeks, when my phone started to light up with message after message, from families who were sitting down to a dinner, expressing their untold gratitude for the efforts of my team, they were emotional, and could not thank us enough, it was then, that i knew that this project was so special, and made me understand why so many people got involved, supported us, raised funds, donated their time, and generally pushed us until the last package had been delivered. It sounds mad, but I cannot wait for its return in 2022, bigger and better.
Luke Shaw
400 Families sat down on Christmas Day, 2021 to enjoy a hot dinner, because of the efforts of so many, from children donating toys and pocket money, to organisations donating food and money, we want to take this opportunity to say a huge thank you to you all:-
- Mrs Jo Rogers of Deal Community Church and Kingsdown and Ringwould COE Primary School and all the pupils, who between them helped us raise over £900
- Merrygold Florists for their cake sale, raising £140
- ST Mary’s COE Primary School, Dover
- Deborah Berry who raised over £140
- Deal Town Football Club who raised £390 in total
- Together for Dover for their £500 donation
- Iceland Deal, for allowing us to place 2 collection tins on their tills, raising over £150
- C J Beans and Sons Farms in worth, for donating over £1500 worth of fresh veg and potatoes.
- Malika Wiles and her year 6 friends at Deal Parochial COE Primary School who helped raise us nearly £100
- The Original Factory shop – Deal, for donating £100 worth of toys for us to give away.
- James Bridger and The Coop for donating £150 worth of stock.
- Tracy Carr and everyone at Talk It Out for their collection of food and toys
- Carl and Marna Hubbard and all the customers of The Stag, Deal for their Quiz night, raising £200
- Celeste Meleady who once again did her 21 days of Christmas, wearing a different outfit each day, raising an amazing £150
- A special Thank you goes to John and Rosie Tricky and our amazing Deal Carnival Court, who attended the big day and eagerly got involved with the picking and packing,
- Iceland, Aldi and Sainsburys in Deal for allowing us to empty their stores of all their fresh produce to pass on to others.
Plus so many wonderful people, apologies if we missed anyone but we are grateful for everyone’s kindness and generosity.
