The 12th annual Christmas Tree Collection will take place over the weekend of Saturday 7th and Sunday 8th January raising much needed funds for East Cheshire Hospice.
In January 2011 the collection raised over £59,400 for the Hospice to help meet its fund raising need for £6000 per day, this broke the previous record of £55,500.
Over £282,000 has been donated to the Hospice by supporters of the Christmas Tree Collection since 2001.
Long established as one of the Hospice's largest fundraising events, the Collection is run entirely by volunteers and gives every pound that it collects on the trees to the East Cheshire Hospice. It is the largest volunteer Christmas Tree recycling service in the country and last year over 4,400 individual collections were made using 29 lorries and support from over 138 helpers each day.
The Collection team grind the trees into mulch which is mixed into compost for recycling back into the soil in an entirely environmentally friendly manner. Last year nearly 43 tonnes of recycled mulch was treated in this way, equivalent to 9 African elephants!
Richard Raymond, one of the organisers, said "It is a simple idea which works on the principle of "save all that mess in your car by having your Christmas tree collected in return for a small donation. You book in with us and we will collect and recycle your old tree and collect your donation to the Hospice - no mess and no worries!"
All of the money donated goes to the Hospice. A minimum donation of £4 per tree is suggested, which will run the Hospice for about 1 minute, however the volunteers request that you are as generous as you can be for this worthwhile cause.
The target this year is to collect and recycle 5000 Christmas trees in one weekend. So far 2163 trees have been registered. To help the volunteers reach their target book your collection at www.echtrees.org.uk or by phoning Richard Raymond on 01625 612025.
The collection will be made over the weekend of Saturday 8th January and Sunday 9th January but due to the vast number of trees to be collected it is not possible for them to give an exact time when they will be in your area.
