The one thing that Royston, Buntingford and the SG8 villages of South Cambridgeshire have in common is community spirit in abundance. The support we have received over the Christmas period has been phenomenal and it really has made such a difference to the families Home-Start support in these areas.
Here are just some of the wonderful things the local people and businesses have done in support of Home-Start:
Stuart Bennett (with the help of Louise), through the sale of his Christmas trees, raised a wonderful £235 for another year running.
Linda Bance and the WomenSing Choir hosted yet another ‘evening of song’ raising funds for Home-Start. During 2020-2021 the choir met on zoom and then during the summer months in Linda’s garden to ensure that they could all continue to sing together safely. Their Christmas 2021 get-together was well supported and guests enjoyed mulled wine and mince pies whilst listening to a selection of songs – some of which they were able to join in. A whopping £518 was raised at this event. The choir also sang at Royston Market raising another £43.40. We would like to thank Linda and all the choir members for their ongoing support.
Both St Mary’s Church, Braughing (with a donation of £203.20) and the Layston Masonic Lodge no 6699 (with their donation of £500) helped make the Home-Start family Christmas party possible. Read our blog about it here.
A super £100 donation from the lovely people at the Woodman Inn, Nuthampstead raised through a raffle.
We received a heartfelt letter from a local supporter who wished to donate their winter fuel allowance of £300 to support a local family, such a lovely kind act. Another local supporter donated £25 to Home-Start instead of sending Christmas cards to his friends and family – a great way to support a local charity and good for the environment too!
Local churches were also amazing in their support with Reed church raising a fantastic £234.62 through their Christmas services, and Melbourn and Meldreth Churches Together raising £245.11 through carol singing.
Jake, from Treasure Cache Ltd, donated advent calendars to share with our home visiting families.
While Danielle from Usbourne books gifted a book to each and every child of the families we support. These were well received by the children.
Steeple Chasers Running & Cycling Club held their Santa fun run and collected donations for Home-Start, raising a spectacular £305.26 for us. You can read about their event here. Meanwhile, with the help of the Royston & District Round Table, members from the Skuce household and our supporter Hayley and her friends, Santa (Ray for Meldreth and Ian for Royston) waved from his sleigh to the children in both Meldreth and Royston, raising £400 and £360 respectively in donations.
The British Queen, with whom we are their charity of the year, are supporting Home-Start with the proceeds from their meat raffles (held every Sunday at the pub in Meldreth at 5 pm) and their carol singing event in December, which raised a helpful £461.05.
We were also supported during December through the sale of Christmas cards, eBay sales and our events – Meldreth (£300) and Haslingfield Christmas Markets (£200), Christmas door decoration workshops (£700) and the Film Night in Buntingford (£400).
Thank you again to the businesses in Royston and Buntingford for displaying the posters for our Living Advent Calendars, which everyone enjoyed.
This demonstrates some of the incredible support from our local community over the Christmas period. However, we know that there are many other organisations, individuals, companies and groups that have given their time, funding, expertise, resources and many other aspects to help Home-Start. We would like to say a very big thank you to everyone who has supported us throughout 2021 and continue to help Home-Start in a range of ways. Without you, we would not be able to continue delivering much-needed support to local parents and their children.