WE'RE OFF.............

Well Monday the 12th November came round really quickly, we opened up a cold but very tidy and organised warehouse and before we could take breath volunteers were arriving, lots of them! In fact we had nearly 60 volunteers on our first day. Fortunately we had managed to get a head of work for them to start on, a number of shoeboxes awaited their arrival.  However, before that, there was of course a little paperwork...... a form to fill in ....and guess what? before too long we had run out them, as we had so many people turn up.

Ted arrived (chauffeured of course) with his shoebox, having insisted in making his own...., we will explore what is in there over the coming three weeks.


How fantastic to see our regulars, lots of familiar, friendly faces and, to our delight, lots of new people too.  Our trainers were somewhat rushed off their feet with the influx of people. We do like to take our time to do a welcome greeting, an orientation of the site and the importance of knowing the correct way to treat, check and seal a shoebox so it will bring the joy intended, as well as the fun things too, for example the sales table, guessing "Ted's" name and all the information dotted around.

The first delivery of the day arrives at the warehouse

Our volunteer drivers were busy with their first set of collections. There will be be many more of them over the next few weeks.












Checking began and soon the tables started to fill with checked shoeboxes











It wasn't long before Gerard had packed the very first carton, the first of many we have little doubt of that...Will we bring joy and happiness to even more children this year? We certainly hope so. Last year we sent 16,326 boxes. That makes over 16,000 happy children.

Already we are finding some brilliant hand made gifts within the shoeboxes, two delightful shoulder bags turned up at the same table kindly modelled by some of our new volunteers. There will be lots of craft examples to show you over the next few weeks.

BEWARE!!!!!! MEN AT WORK........

Actually they work VERY hard, packing the cartons, so we allow them a break!!! Thanks guys for all your hard work and dedication. 

2012 was a very special year for Great Britain lets help make it a special year for thousands of children by giving them a shoe box filled with love and bursting with joy.