I am delighted to announce that Operation Santa is officially over for this Covid Christmas 2020 and what a ride it’s been.  The last few collections have been made and there have certainly been a lot of those this year.

We have given gifts to 6204 children and young people this year, and received a record-breaking 38444 donations, both fairly incredible stats in these challenging times.

Groups and organisations who have never been supported before have received support this year, in addition to the regular schools, family centres and social workers, plus voluntary and community groups who support vulnerable children, young people and families.  We’ve reached more recipients than ever and have hopefully helped lots of families who are struggling this Christmas. There have been loads of food and toiletry donations this year, which shows that the lovely people who have supported us realise that many families are struggling for the essentials in life, not just presents.

 

THANK YOU to the super volunteer team

Trevor has worked their socks of sorting donations and picking gifts for the lists when they have come in. Without these two amazing people Operation Santa would never have happened.  He has sorted three times more donations this year in their COVID ‘bubble’. 

 

THANK YOU To all our amazing supporters

• Black Country Radio for their support with raising our profile and providing centralised info on their page about what we are doing. A true community radio station supporting our cause and helping us make a difference.
• Brett Harris our Business Ambassador and his incredible network of supporters 
• Lee Southerton from Volks Magic and Garry Aulton from Beerbuz, and Santa’s A Gangster, and their phenomenal family of VW supporters and local businesses. Garry also donated this year’s prize draw car, which was transformed into an amazing Herbie lookalike and was won by a very lucky Paul Holmes.

Our fabulous collection point network who have been brilliant this year and made it easier for people to drop off donations. This has worked so well we hope to do this again next year. These wonderful people have stepped up and taken on the challenges that the pandemic had presented, even continuing to accept donations in a safe manner during the lockdown. 

• Halesowen BID
• Brierley Hill Market
• Cornish Pasty Box
• Geoff Hill Electrical Superstore
• Blaze Hair
• Volks Magic
• Black Country Cleaners
• The Works, Stourbridge
• The LIttle Griddle, Halesowen

THANK YOU to every single one of the lovelies who have supported us this year 😊

Every £1 given and every single donation has made a real difference.

We wish you all a lovely festive break and hope that 2021 will be a big improvement on 2020. The elves and I will now be taking a well-earned break and see you all next year, when hopefully things will have returned to some type of normality.