Well, what a fantastic night we have all had along at destiny church tonight, for our Christmas party! We had around 200 people turn up tonight, to be treated to a Christmas dinner with all the trimmings, carol singing, and lots and lots of gifts!! Our night started off quite sour, as we were unloading the piles and piles of shoes boxes and gifts which you guys had donated. Its always hard unloading things at destiny church due to its location on pilgrim street, and tonight when we pulled up in the transit van (which was full to bursting point with gifts) there was a huge queue at the bus stop. Andrea and Jo had pulled up just before us and were emptying the shoes boxes they had in their car too, and as I watched from our van behind them, I noticed the people in the queue giving them dirty looks, standing in their way and generally being quite rude. I opened the van door to ask what the problem was and was faced with a barrage of abuse from not only one person, but from everyone in the bus queue. I explained, as Andrea already had, that we were unloading gifts for the homeless community as we were having a Christmas party tonight, to which I was laughed at, swore at and given the most disgusting looks, from shoppers young and old. I have never been so disgusted in humanity. Here we are, struggling to unload heavy boxes which we plan to give to people who possibly wont get many gifts this year, and because we had the audacity to walk past them as the queued for their bus with their arms laden with gifts for their friends and family, they speak to us like scum. I told them all that they are the vision of festive cheer and wished them all a merry Christmas, as they finally got on their bus and went back to their miserable lives. Sometimes life throws you moments which make you ashamed of your species and makes you wish you had been born a fish or something with a bit more dignity. This was one of these moments. After a quick lap of the block to let the other cars unload, we pulled back up outside destiny to see a team of people waiting to help unload the shoe boxes. I had been panicking about how we would get them all out and inside destiny, but I need not have worried, as there was a line of people, working like pros, passing the boxes from one to the other, in a big line all the way up the stairs. We managed to get the boxes out with no stress at all and only annoyed the new people at the bus stop a little bit this time. It was an amazing example of team work!! Once inside, our friends were treated to some Christmas carols as everybody waited excitedly to be told to go upstairs. It was lovely to see everyone dressed up and making a special effort. The girls had their make up on and their best clothes, some of the lads had came in Santa hats or antlers, it was a real party atmosphere. When we all went upstairs, everyone was amazed at what Joanne and her team had done. The room looked amazing with all the decorations up and the tables set and the smell of the Christmas dinner was unreal. Thank you to all of the wonderful people who donated food to us to enable us to provide such a fantastic spread for our friends. It literally had it all! Our friends all sat down and were served a 3 course meal by the wonderful volunteers who had offered their time to help us. In between courses there was a tombola, where everyone won a prize. There was a huge table full of wonderful gifts which had all been donated, as well as hampers, gifts sets, some really lovely prizes for our friends to take away with them. It was lovely to see everybody sitting down to a formal Christmas dinner, with their party hats and best clothes on. It made me so proud to look around and see how far we have came from last year. Last Christmas #teamMWW dreamed that one day we would be able to throw a Christmas party for all of our street friends and this year, thanks to Joanne and her team at destiny Streetworx and all of you we have been able to do just that. Its an amazing achievement to be part of and we should all be very proud of all the effort we go to to ensure that our street friends have an enjoyable night, not just this Saturday, but every single Saturday for the last 10 months. After the meal was finished, we all moved downstairs to hand out the gifts we had for everyone. I was pulled aside by the two grandmothers we have helped this week, and thanked for the delivery of gifts and Christmas food we had taken them this week. Both ladies were over the moon with what we had given them, and one said to me youve really made Christmas this year for my family, it would have been nothing without your help Its amazing to know that not only have we helped these ladies to be able to enjoy Christmas, but weve also made it possible for their children and grandchildren to have a lovely day full of gifts and Christmas joy! We had so many shoe boxes, selection boxes and gifts to hand out, as well as 90 brand new fleeces, which meant everybody went away with a few prezzies and there were plenty left over to be handed out to people who need them over the next couple of weeks. We have a few walk abouts planned over the Christmas period so will be handing some out then and have left some at destiny church to be given to people who could really do with a Christmas gift this year. Thank you all so so much for your kindness. Our shoe box appeal was so successful that we have been able to give out around 450 shoes boxes full of goodies, including lots to children whos families are living on a very low income. Not only that, but we have also gave out bags and bags of other gifts, toys, selection boxes, advent calandra and a massive amount of Christmas food to ensure that families around the north east are celebrating the holidays without having to worry about how they will afford to buy presents or food. Thank you all again, from the bottom of my heart. One of the old guys there tonight took his shoes box and held it close and told Jo he would be saving it to open on Christmas Day, as it was the only gift he would get this year. You lot have enabled this man and many more like him to experience the same feeling of excitement we all get on Christmas Day as we unwrap our gifts. Thank you, thank you thank you for helping us to do that. Tomorrow I will be delivering a van load of household items to the guy we met last week. He was there again tonight and was in much better spirits, as we had delivered a sofa to him at the beginning of the week. He told me he was over the moon when someone just turned up out of the blue with it for him and that its so comfy for him to sit on and sleep on. I laughed and told him that I had been to his house 5 times this week as I had a van full of food, clothes, furniture, a microwave, heater and all sorts of other bits for him but he hadnt been in. He told me he now had a phone so I could contact him before I go over tomorrow to drop it all off for him, and couldnt believe it when I was telling him what we had for him already. He said his house is absolutely bitter, so my hubby will be going round first thing to drop all his stuff off so he can get his heater on and start to warm the place up a bit. Im chuffed to bits that he was there tonight, I have to admit i had been worries about him after going round so many times and getting no answer, but Im happy to know hes safe and well and that tomorrow night, he will be going to sleep in a warm flat with his Christmas decorations up, his new furniture in and plenty of food and that he can now relax and enjoy Christmas. Everybody has had a brilliant night tonight, the atmosphere was lovely and our street friends have all been well and truly spoiled. Thank you so much to all of you! Big special thanks go to Leann Rea, who sourced most of the food for tonights 3 course Christmas dinner, to Karen Walls for collecting and storing it all, to John Lewis for donating a load of Christmas decorations, table decorations, Christmas crackers, napkins and table cloths, to the kids from Justine Foxs sons school who made 150 Christmas cards to hand out to our friends tonight, to all of the businesses and individuals who have donated cash towards food and gifts, to this who came along to volunteer at base or at the party, to everyone who has donated crackers, cards, shoes boxes, food, napkins, decorations, selection boxes, wrapping paper and everything else that we have had which has enable us to pull tonight off and of course a huge huge thank you go to Joanne and her team from Destiny Streetworx, who have worked hard for weeks planning this and have been cooking and preparing everything all day today and most of yesterday, you guys are real angels and although it has been a lot of stress for you all, you have done a grand job and have managed to arrange a fantastic night for us and our street friends. Well done and Merry Christmas to you all! #OpSafeWinter
Posted on: Sat, 20 Dec 2014 23:32:43 +0000
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