The Greenaway Foundation - Christmas Eve

Well here we are again! It only seems like yesterday when we finished our last years' efforts.

This year I thought I would put together one or two newsletters, so I could update all the various elements of the Christmas efforts at the same time.  So whether you are a school, charity or council body, or one of the 1000 people sponsoring food and/or presents or maybe you are donating your time, hopefully you will find this helpful.

So to quickly recap what was achieved last Christmas.  Deliveries were made to 344 families in the general areas of Crawley, East Grinstead & Horley.  Over 700 children smiled when they opened their wish .  This was achieved by 137 people who volunteered to make it happen and over 600 people who made donations.  We could not have achieved so much without everyone's generosity, time and energy. 

However this year I think more can be achieved and the aim is to help 500 families and make at least a 1000 wishes come true.  However we are somewhat on the backfoot.  In February 2020, The Greenaway Foundation became a formal charity and the plan was to have a couple of fundraisers in August and October.  However due to Covid19 all fundraising events had to be cancelled.  This means more than ever we are very hand to mouth, and making plans is difficult.

Despite this, I still believe we can make even more happen and I am resolute to this task over the next four weeks to make as many people smile on Christmas Day.  

However, regardless of the results, it is the journey that is important and if we only make one parent smile, or create a lasting memory for one child, we have all achieved a good thing.

So lets enjoy this years journey together and finish off 2020 by making as many people smile as we can.

Best wishes

Darren Greenaway

Chairman & Trustee

The Greenaway Foundation

Schools, Charities & Council Bodies

By now you will all have been contacted and sent a template to complete with your nominations.  Due to the fact we have to be very careful who we introduce to Santa's Wish (previously the wishing tree), we ask that you do not mention this to families but grade them appropriately.

 

Please can you get your nominations to us by the latest week ending 13th December 2020.  This gives us enough time to talk with them, make arrangements and introduce them to Santa's Wish.  

 

However if you become aware of another family after this date who you feel may benefit from what we do, please do talk to us and we will do everything we can to help.

 

We know this creates additional work for you, which we apologise for, but we are thankful for your nominations.

Food Sponsors

If you own a company, we still need several items of food sponsored. Please have a look and see if you can help.

Click here to read Food Sponsors.

Sponsor A Wish

As a child, I remember endlessly turning the pages of catalogues, looking at the pictures of toys and games wishing for what my mother could not afford. Bless her, she did her best with very little, but as a child I would carry around this empty feeling on the lead up to Christmas.

 

In 2016 I introduced the wishing tree and encouraged parents that we were helping to bring their children into the Estate Agents, where we would have lots of catalogues for the children to look through. We tried to make it as comfortable and relaxed as possible for them, so the children and parents could bond, while they chose a wish (present).  Unfortunately we have to limit the cost so children are given a guide price of £10-£25 for their wish.

 

Due to Covid19, we have had to try and reduce the number of people coming to our offices so we introduced Santa's Wish, where children could write a letter to Santa wishing for a present.

 

If you would like to make a wish come true you can either make a donation via our gofundme page or call Greenaway Residential 01293 561188/01342 777977 to either make a donation or ask for a wish to be allocated to you.  In the past some sponsors have preferred the latter option and to involve their own children in buying and wrapping the wish, to highlight the position of less fortunate children.

 

If you would like to sponsor a wish, please accept my personal gratitude as I cannot achieve this alone. I get to see each of the letters that come in and whilst some make me smile and others may bring a tear to my eye, I am feel blessed that a good thing is being done.

 

Best wishes

 

Darren Greenaway

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Oriel High School

We cannot thank Oriel High School enough (or the other schools and colleges who offered their facilities) who are allowing The Greenaway Foundation once again to use the school as a base to organise our efforts from.

 

For the Elves and Reindeer who are helpingon Christmas Eve (or on the 23rd) and do not know where this is, the address is Maidenbower Lane, Maidenbower, Crawley, West Sussex, RH10 7XW.

 

Elves

It is true the Elves do all the hard work and the Reindeer get all the praise!  This has always been the case in Lapland and it is the same in Crawley, East Grinstead and Horley.

 

Elves start work throughout the Eve of Christmas Eve (that's the 23rd December), we have not got a specific time as yet as it depends on when Oriel High School can allow access. 

 

The first job of the day is to layout up to five hundred boxes. These will then have one of every food item that is not a perishable item, e.g. potatoes, carrots, oil, etc. The wishes (presents) are then set up near the boxes.  These tasks may not sound like a lot of work, but even our great friends at the Crawley Rugby Club look tired at the end.

 

The following morning at approximately 6am delivery of the Chickens and fresh cream will be made.  Each of the boxes are then tailored to the size of the family, larger families obviously get more items of food.  Each box is then checked to make sure all food items are in the box and the right amount is there, as well as the Christmas wishes.

 

The Elves will then load the Reindeer Sleighs and see them on their way.  This will be non stop 90-120 minutes of running back and forth with food and wishes. 

 

We are eternally grateful to the whole team at Oriel High School, so the Elves final job is to clear up every sign that we were ever there and the school is left in the condition we found it.

 

In previous years we have had less available time so have had to have many Elves working at once, most people would call this organised chaos and those people would be right.  With help from Oriel High School, we have a lot more time and therefore unlike previous years we can plan and organise better.  If you would like to be an Elf for the 23rd or Christmas Eve please email darren@greenawayresidential.com and title your email 'Elf'. 

Reindeers

If you would like to help with deliveries and it is your first time or may be your ninth time, please accept our sincerest gratitude for your help, support and goodwill.

 

If possible, we ask the Reindeer to turn up wearing something Christmassy and between the hours of 9.30am and 11am. We appreciate that some Reindeer will want to make numerous deliveries in one go, but each driver will be given up to three deliveries to make. Should you wish to make more deliveries, that is not a problem, just pop back and collect more.

 

This is for several reasons, last year some Reindeer took away lots of deliveries and some of the wishes got mixed up. Other Reindeer arrived later in the window slot and there were no deliveries to make, this felt particularly harsh when they had brought children with them to help.

 

Every year the results we achieve significantly increases and the systems we have put in place sometimes fail. At the end of every year we review our systems to see where problems occurred and we try to improve them. Unfortunately these systems are only as good as the previous years results. We want everything to go smoothly and for everyone to have fun, if things do go wrong have faith that everyone is trying their best.

 

If you would like to be a Reindeer on Christmas Eve morning and you have a sleigh (vehicle), please email darren@greenawayresidential.com and title your email 'Reindeer'.

Amazon Smile

Although most people only hear about The Greenaway Foundation at Christmas time.  We do help the local community throughout the year, by helping financially challenged families who fly under the radar of getting formal help. We mainly help schools by offering assistance to problems, to ease the stress and anxiety children may have by helping with things like food, uniforms and travel.

 

By choosing The Greenaway Foundation as your chosen charity on Amazon Smile, we can continue to raise money for causes throughout the year.

We Like To Have Fun

It is suprising that the biggest Christmas Grinch (Darren Greenaway) actually tries to have fun with the Christmas efforts.  One way we do this is by having different names for things that we need.  

 

Terminology

 

Elves - Helpers

Reindeer - Delivery Drivers

Sleigh - Vehicles

Wishes - Presents

Gatherers - Present Sponsors

 

If you have any fun ideas that we can use please email them to darren@greenawayresidential.com

 

Every year our efforts evolve and change, great ideas are always being added.

Join Us On Facebook

If you would like to follow the build up to this Christmas's efforts, the events we have planned for 2021 and see some of the causes we help, join us on our Facebook Page.

Click here to read Join Us On Facebook.

The Greenaway Foundation

The Greenaway Foundation is the charity side of Greenaway Residential Estate Agents. We are part of the community and therefore want to help the community.

Click here to read The Greenaway Foundation.