As Christmas quickly approaches we are excited to share our reverse advent calendar, a twist on a traditional Christmas countdown, which with your help will have huge impact on our charity and our companions.
Our reverse advent calendar, encourages you to give back and gift items to our charity, instead of receiving a treat each day. Behind every door is something our community, companions or wider community are in need of. With your support our companions can keep warm and celebrate Christmas together, we can gift presents to vulnerable families in Colchester and help outreach charities connect with people sleeping rough this Winter. Other donations will support our social enterprises and second-hand shops.
Throughout December, we’ll be sharing 12 days of giving on our social media platforms, with ideas of how you can make a difference this Christmas time. As well as supporting our charity during a time of rising costs and bills, you can also de-clutter your house before the big day by donating unwanted items!
For many of our companions, Christmas is a hard time of year and in our community, we hope to build a sense of belonging so everyone feels at home. With your help, donating items like board games, bedding and making one-off or monthly monetary donations to us we can achieve this.
Join in with the whole calendar or just pick a few days to support us, the choice is yours but we appreciate every donation. Set aside a box and donate items at the end of the month or bring items into our Warehouse on 4A Arthur Street, Colchester when you next visit us. If you’d like to donate all 12 items the full list is below:
Day 1: Unwanted Christmas Decorations
Day 2: Toys and Games for Operation Christmas (deadline for donations Wednesday 6th December)
Day 3: Luxury Toiletries for Operation Christmas (deadline for donations Wednesday 6th December)
Day 4: Board Games – for our companions to enjoy in their spare time
Day 5: Donate to our 15th Anniversary Fundraiser and help build a gym on our site.
Day 6: Christmas Jumpers
Day 7: New bedding for single beds
Day 8: Sign up to be a monthly donor from £2 a month
Day 9: Furniture, beds, chairs, tables – de-clutter and make room for Christmas guests!
Day 10: Unused Mobile Phones – for our companions to connect with friends and family
Day 11: Fleeces or blankets for Beacon House
Day 12: Think of us when having January clear-outs or if you receive unwanted presents.
All donations are to be dropped at our Warehouse on 4A Arthur Street, Colchester – just behind our Emmaus Works store. Our Warehouse and shops close on Friday 22nd December.