As the co-founder and coordinator of the Hounslow Christmas Project, I want to thank all the businesses and members of the local community who supported the project this Christmas. Through your generosity and support, the project delivered over 2500 presents for children in Hounslow this Christmas, the largest amount in what is now the 4th year of the project.
We began the project in 2020 as a partnership between the Hounslow Education Partnership, the Reach Foundation and Hounslow’s Promise, when we heard from parents how difficult things were and that even buying presents for children would be hard. It inspired the project which works with primary and secondary schools across Hounslow providing wrapped gifts as requested by the school for children of all ages – from nursery to year 13. This year the project raised over £15,000 from business and community donations to bring happiness to children whose parents may be unable to afford gifts themselves.
I want to also thank local and west London businesses including DPD, Russell Finex Ltd, SEGRO, Heston Hyde Hotel, Cygnet Properties, Heathrow Community Fund, Universal Fortunes Ltd and CareTech Foundation for their generous support of the project, and to all individual donations to the project’s Just Giving page which totalled over £2,000. From October through to December, gifts were bought and wrapped by volunteers from the local community, and packed by the Hounslow Education Partnership (Cormac Bourne and team) into boxes for the schools.
I am also grateful again for the support of the amazing local DPD team in Feltham who dedicated drivers for three days made sure all the deliveries reached the participating schools, which this year numbered 43 primary and secondary schools across Hounslow borough.
Whilst it has been a huge challenge, everyone involved from the volunteers to the teachers gave it everything. Hearing some of the feedback has made it all so worthwhile.
One school said “In these hard financial times, it’s like a ray of sunshine to receive a brand new toy especially for oneself.”
Another school shared “We are delighted with our Christmas gifts -they made our children very happy indeed. I will not forget the surprise and joy on the children’s faces. Every child said a BIG thank you! It is a wonderful Christmas initiative and it will mean so much to so many.”
A third school told us “it was lovely to see so many smiling faces. For some of our children this may be the only present they receive and it was really heartwarming to be able to bring some joy into their lives.”
And a fourth told us “We have received our beautifully wrapped parcels and would like to thank you once again for arranging this initiative. It is a really lovely thing to do for our families and those across Hounslow Borough for whom financial hardship is a way of life. At a time when they may feel particularly alone and unsupported, this will let them know that somebody is thinking of them and somebody cares.”
We know it has been once again a very difficult year for families across our community. But no matter how difficult the circumstances, we believe every child deserves a gift at Christmas. Thank you to all of those who helped us to give children in Hounslow once again a Christmas to remember.