Sleigh-mazing Christmas
A HUGE thank you to YLF supporters for a sleigh-mazing Christmas!
2024 Wrapped Up
It gives us great pleasure to wrap up 2024 knowing that our kind and generous community have spread Christmas joy by donating gifts, money, and so much more…! Read on to hear more about our sleigh-mazing Christmas!
A whopping 3,000+ donated gifts were thoughtfully given and kindly wrapped by volunteers and delivered to children, care leavers and families across Kent and Medway. In such hard times, support like this couldn’t be more appreciated. None of this could have happened without the support of giving trees and collections held by various businesses across the county, including
The Oak on the Green – SGN Gas Networks – Notcutts – Bluewater – British Assessment Bureau – Albany Funerals … and many more!!
A huge thank you also goes to everyone who has helped support us to make Christmas extra special for our young people. From volunteer ‘elves’ to ‘sleigh’ drivers, and those who gave donations, held raffles or shared our campaigns – we are sincerely grateful to all of you, including:
KCC Civic Office – UK Power Network Services – Bacon Butty Brigade – Countrystyle Recycling – Kristy at FitnessPerks Boostfit – June Diplock and the Infrastructure and Technology Team … and our supporter Kirsty, who donated over 100 Advent Calendars for our young people!!
Care Leaver Christmas Appeal
Throughout November and December, we fundraised in order to spread Christmas cheer to our 2,000+ care leavers, many of whom would be celebrating Christmas on their own.
We partnered once more with KCC in order to raise the funds needed to give each care leaver a £10 gift card. And it gives us great pleasure to announce that…..
WE RAISED OVER £32,000!!
With huge thanks to all businesses, partners, organisations and individuals who donated. We were able to give EVERY SINGLE ONE of our care leavers a gift card AND provide a Christmas Day lunch for 52 young people who would otherwise be on their own this Christmas!
One young care leaver commented: ‘”I’m so happy that you thought about me so much, one day I will repay you.”‘
and another said, ‘”It was such a good day, we really enjoyed it, and the presents as well. Thank you for everything…god bless you.”
A message from Caroline Smith, Assistant Director of Corporate Parenting:
“I would like to express my sincere thanks to everyone who has helped us raise and exceed our £25,000 target for the Corporate Parenting Christmas Appeal.
As Assistant Director of Corporate Parenting this is of course a campaign that is closest to my heart and due to your generosity, and the support from the Young Lives Foundation, the Corporate Parenting Christmas appeal successfully raised £32,838.
I am blown away with the support our appeal has received this year and am pleased to confirm we have raised enough funds to make sure that every one of our young adult care leavers aged 18-25 years were able to receive a £10 gift voucher. We will also be able to provide 50 young people with Christmas Day lunch, including transport and gifts for our care leaver attendees. Look out for photos from the event that will be shared in the new year.
Thank you for helping to make this year’s appeal such a success. Your kindness is a testament to the empathy that defines our KCC community, our KCC values and how when we work together, we can achieve being the best corporate parents we can be.
A special thank you to Permila Clare and the Corporate Parenting Elves, for writing all the Christmas cards and organising the delivery of gifts and vouchers. Helping Permila this year was myself, Nicole Winters and Nimesh Patel from Corporate Parenting, as well as Faye Don, Gemma Brazil, James Willis, Sue McGibbon, Robbie Hand, Rachel Wallis, Sholeh Soleimanifar, Sylvia Rolfe, Alice Unsworth, Andy Jones, Helen Cook from Commissioning. Thank you all.”
In 2024, 2000 care leavers received a gift, along with 53 care leavers receiving Christmas dinner, and an additional 3000+ gifts donated via our Giving Trees. That’s over 5000+ smiles raised over Christmas, bringing so much cheer to so many families in Kent! Thank you!