It’s been a very challenging year for our community charity so I thought I’d share the good things we have been doing in the run-up to Christmas for local people in East Mitcham.
We had our Christmas Lights Event last Saturday with lights switched on by the Mayor of Merton. This was a really nice family event – lots of local children with their parents and carers enjoying themselves with crafts, as well as stalls and some fund-raising for the Lunch Club and a guest appearance from Mitcham Zoo! With the stall and previous raffle we have enough cash to buy small Christmas items for all of the members of our daily lunch club so we are really pleased about that.
For local children and families with children, we have obtained and distributed free tickets to Polka Theatre events in Wimbledon over the festive period thanks to the community outreach work of the theatre.
On Tuesday we had our ‘Jack and the Beanstalk’ pantomime in the main hall of the New Horizon Centre. We kept the prices really low and the price includes hot food and a drink, and have also distributed free tickets to families that we know struggle financially.
On 11th December we have our big Christmas Lunch for older people and we will also be thanking and gifting all our wonderful volunteers. There are 75 people booked on this and we had to close the bookings due to having no more spaces! The Deputy Mayor of Merton will attend and local primary school, the Sherwood will join us with their children’s choir.
We have two more primary school choir events for lunch clubbers between now and Christmas – from local Harris Primary and from William Morris Primary. Harris Academy Merton secondary students are doing a food and treats collection and will bring this to us on 16th December. These will be distributed as appropriate to help as many people possible and make Christmas as special as we can for them.
We continue with Tuesday evenings Supper Club – a free session where anyone can come and cook with us and eat supper together afterwards.
We are closed from 23rd December until 2nd January when we re-open fully. Duty staff will share an emergency telephone line service over this period for vulnerable clients. We are expecting some deliveries of food during the closure (probably 23rd, 27th and 30th December) and two members of staff will open up and distribute these. Once we know what we are getting when we will publicise the times widely.
We have our AGM on 17th December and will be awarding volunteer certificates during this event also.
We have an evening Bingo event on 18th December for which we are selling tickets – this is an extra Christmas fun activity for mostly older residents.
On 20th December, our last full day, we are running a Children’s Party. Santa will attend with sweets. We are now registered as a part of the Mayor of London’s Community Kitchen programme and we will be providing holiday food for families with children who are struggling financially. This is a 12-month commitment.
So all in all, in a grant-drought year, I am very proud of what we have managed to achieve and how hard we work to keep everyone safe, connected and healthy.
Happy New Year everyone, when it comes!
