Wednesday 21st December 2011
What a fantastic day!
Chichester Charity Shop had been organising their Christmas ideas and event for weeks. The shop window looked truly festive and the day started well with the event being publicised on Spirit FM, the local radio station and a small piece published in the local Chichester paper and associated free papers.
The staff were immediately into the festive spirit dressed as elves, Mother Christmas and fairies, offering mince pies, sweets and overwhelming enthusiasm. They had put together two huge baskets of goodies for raffle prizes and raised in excess of £80.00 in ticket sales within the shop. Customers were also entering into the fun day and were divulging their ‘wishes’ for Christmas to Dee (volunteer), who was dressed as a Fairy Godmother, complete with wand and wishes!
At 11.00 am we were joined by Benny Bear who drew a lot of interest from passing children and families and additional attention from the local Police, who came along to the shop later in the day, to see how things were going. Benny was on good form, chatting to children, talking about his books and the highlight of the day was meeting one of his ‘fans’ – Matt Palmer, who came along with his Mum, specifically to meet Benny. (see picture attached). Benny thoroughly enjoyed meeting everyone in Chichester and was pleased to hear that he had raised £70.00 in his collecting tin.
We were also fortunate enough to have a toy, ride-on Audi car donated from Brighton Audi, but felt that this warranted a little more time to generate interest in terms of a raffle prize. Chichester shop decided to sell raffle tickets separately for this prize and would take it over into the New Year. I am due to visit Chichester this week and will let you know about the draw and prize winner.
At 3.00 pm, mince pies eaten, fairy wings bent and elves shoes and feet aching, we all concluded that the Christmas Fun Day had been a resounding success. The footfall in the shop was encouraging and although not everyone was spending money, raising awareness of both SHINE as a Charity and chatting to customers about our work, may have hopefully sown the seeds for 2012 as the Charity shop to visit.
Thank you to everyone for their contributions and hard work and look forward to more fun events – Easter is fast approaching!!
Regards
Sharon Saville
Tel: 01273 419022
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