The Shoebox operation of 2021 has now been completed and on Friday December 3^rd all boxes were delivered to Shoebox HQ in Oldham.

As you can see from the photograph of the boxes in my garage prior to loading, we have managed to contribute this year a magnificent total of 314 Shoeboxes

Club Treasurer Derek Morgan with grandaughter Ella getting busy packing their shoeboxes.

Of those 314 Shoeboxes, over 70 were provided by Sylvia Morgan and Julie Hickman, who, along with their family and friends deserve this special mention as their contributions are really significant. They clearly both put an enormous amount of effort into filling so many boxes. New member Simon Love managed to procure many items suitable for youngsters which went toward the production of 40 Shoeboxes! Thank you Simon.

My friend Peter Kay from the Bethel Christian Fellowship in West Bromwich produced an also amazing 31 boxes and cash donations of £300 enabling me to fill a further 45 boxes on their behalf. So we give many thanks to them also. They are a busy Church but always find time to help those in need.

The remaining boxes were either given by our club members or in the most, their donations were sent to Treasurer Derek so that I could be ‘shopper of the month at Poundland. When applicable gift aid was added, I had just a touch over £1,150.00 to spend.

I spoke to Nigel Danby who is one of the organisers of the Shoebox scheme to ask how things were going and whether needs were being met by the scheme. He said that if they had double their annual total of over 50,000 boxes, it wouldn’t be enough!

There really is such a need still out there.

Our 314 boxes will bring great delight to many families in Romania, Moldova and Ukraine.

So thank you-to everyone who contributed – this really is a wonderful scheme.

Mike Boyce.

We are delighted to support our local branch of The Samaritans. They are on hand 24/7 to answer telephone calls and emails to support those who need someone to talk to and someone to listen to them.

Usually at Christmas Wolverhampton Samaritans have a group of singers who sing at the train station, in Asda and various other locations around the city to raise awareness for Samaritans and to fundraise for the branch. This year, as with the last, things are different and due to the pandemic they have thought outside the box and so have come up with an idea to help raise awareness for not only the local branch, but Samaritans across the country, through something the UK loves most….a good Christmas song!

Christmas can be a challenging time for peoplewho are struggling. The Samarians want to let people know they won’t be alone, even at Christmas. So together with a local recording studio, Inclusic, they have written a song using the thoughts, feelings and words of our branch volunteers. The Song is called ‘At Christmas.’ It’s just been released as a single  that is available for download on iTunes, Amazon Spotify etc

https://t.co/ayDwMwFOz2.

The release week has got off to a great start off strong with the song being played on WCR radio and BBC West Midlands and it looks like being a winner!!

Well done Wolverhampton Samaritans.. a great song and a great idea!!