Community Activities
In 2023, Funeral Arranger Francesca Capaldi-Round worked with Christine Hotchkiss, the Deputy Team Manager in Children and Family Services within the local Redcar and Cleveland Borough Council last Christmas to provide their most vulnerable children with shoe boxes filled with gifts.
Francesca said: “Christine provided me with some feedback from last year. She had a vulnerable family consisting of 6 children within the local area. When January 2024 came and these children returned to school, their headteacher contacted Christine to say he was overwhelmed as all 6 children had turned up to school with a hat, scarf and gloves, which they had never had the luxury of wearing before. Christine advised me these were provided in the boxes they received in 2023. So very heart warming and showing this does make a difference.”
On the 12th of November the appeal went live to the community via social media in the hope that the local community would want to help and start filling boxes again. By the 15th of November all 68 boxes had gone. An amazing community response once again.
The boxes were returned to W. Storeys on 12th December and wrapped with ribbons and bows to emphasise they were Christmas gifts.
Fran said: “Due to regulations from the council, we had to check every box to ensure the content was appropriate, and I was overwhelmed at the generosity of the local community, it was very emotional to see the efforts and length people had gone to, to ensure one child in our area woke up to something special. One lady had personalised her bow to make the contents.”
On the 16th of December Francesca, alongside colleagues Jonathan Bishop and Tony Jepson delivered all the shoe boxes to Christine and her team, and it was a magical experience to see how overwhelmed her and her team were.
A big thank you to all, no child should go without and thanks to everyone involved, 68 vulnerable children will have some magic on Christmas morning.