Tree-mendous effort expected to raise over £90,000 for hospice

Hundreds of volunteers worked tirelessly over the weekend recycling thousands of Christmas trees to raise much needed funds for our local hospice.

The East Cheshire Hospice Christmas Tree Collection, which took place on Saturday 9th and Sunday 10th January collected 6630 trees and so far has raised nearly £73,000 - to help the hospice meet its fund-raising need for £7,500 per day to cover running costs.

Peter Chapman, co-organiser of the tree collection said "With a final forecast of over £90,000 being raised for the Hospice this year, we continue to be amazed and delighted at the support that has been given across our 250 square mile collection area. This means the collection has now raised more than £670,000 from what started with one £10 note!

"The growth and success of the collection for the Hospice over the past 16 years could not have been achieved without the dedication and commitment of more than 300 dedicated volunteers, our fantastic sponsors and the generosity of 6,600 customers who registered for collection and donated to the hospice. Our Hospices provide essential and amazing care to many people with life limiting illnesses - we are very pleased to be able to support them through what has become an annual community recycling event. We now hope that this feels like a regular part of Christmas for everyone involved."

Rob Barrow, Chair of Trustees at East Cheshire Hospice, added "The tree collection is the Hospice's largest fundraising event of the year, and we are incredibly grateful to everyone who supports it. We rely on the community to pay 80% of the costs to keep the Hospice open, so events like this are essential to ensure we can continue to provide essential care and support to those with life limiting illnesses. I'd like to say a huge thank you to the organisers who make it such a success each year."

Out of all the trees collected last weekend, 22% were for new customers and the average donation per tree increased to £10.96. Unfortunately 366 of the tress collected had no donation attached so if you forgot to attach yours, please send it to the hospice this week in your brown envelope.

In January 2015 the 15th annual Christmas Tree Collection for East Cheshire Hospice raised over £91,300, which broke the previous record of £74,000.

Tags:
Christmas Tree Collection, East Cheshire Hospice
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Comments

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Claire MacLeod
Friday 15th January 2016 at 1:22 pm
Brilliant work. Well done to all involved.