With the festive season just around the corner, the Rainy Day Trust has commented on how merchants can make a difference this Christmas.
Each year at Christmas, we send out a small hamper or food voucher to our most vulnerable beneficiaries. In many cases, this is the only contact that they have with the outside world over the festive period. They also receive a hand-written Christmas card from us. It can be a difficult time for many, so a hamper with a few luxury items can make a huge difference. It has a small Christmas cake, tea, coffee, jam and biscuits among other things. Some prefer to have a voucher for their local market, especially those with dietary issues.
We can also help with advice and guidance on debt which as we all know can become worse over Christmas. Wrap that up with our telephone counselling service and I think that you can see, we are able to give a strong level of support for people who may be struggling. As the industries that we support try to cope with the political chaos around Brexit, we hear from more and more people as they face reduced hours or redundancy.
For the majority of people, Christmas is a time of fun and giving, but for many it is a different picture altogether. We can be there for them, giving direct help or advice and information on how to cope. With mental health starting to get the headlines that it needs, we can help people through a tough time. We are your charity helping your people.
The Christmas support doesn’t come free and we need to generate the funds to support it. We’ll be running a ‘12 Days of Christmas Auction’ on our Facebook and Twitter feeds, and we are also asking businesses to sponsor a hamper for £50, or make a donation of stock that we can sell and then raise the money that we need.
While you are sat with your family and friends this Christmas, spare a thought for those for whom Christmas can be a time to forget rather than remember. To make a donation or sponsor a hamper, go to https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/rdtchristmas2019 – if you would like to donate stock that we can use, please e-mail bryan@rainydaytrust.org.uk
