Twas the week before Christmas, when all through the house. Not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse; The stockings were hung by the chimney with care, In the hopes that St. Nicholas soon would be there:
There he would be, at an amazing event, ready to bring gifts and joy for children from our local community. We were happy to play our small part in a great day to honour an amazing person, to invite children and families from past Dreams, and show them that we don’t forget about the special people we come in contact with.
Organisers had worked extremely hard to ensure all the children and families had a special day, we assisted where we could, Clynton played helper and grotto builder but most of all stood back and watched the magic happen. Something we aim to assist with for years to come, including more and more families we come in contact with.
Organisers tell the story of the day and the meaning behind it:
As part of the event we invited a number of children previously impacted by some of our Dreams of the past. It was a great opportunity to show the families we are always
After losing our very special nephew Darren in June 2018 we were talking about keeping his love of Christmas alive in his memory. December 2017 our family was blessed with a visit from the very special man himself, Santa Blake. We set out to raise some money for Santa Blake’s charity as a thank you for his promised visit to Darren, knowing his health was deteriorating rapidly, this was a dream come true for Darren. With the generosity of my Slimming World members, family and friends we were able to donate a large sum to Santa Blake and the Yorkshire Children’s Trust.
Santa Blake offered his services to me for Christmas 2018 and with the help of a dear friend, Sallyann Lawton, after her family receiving a dream, she put me in touch with Clynton Johnson of EvesTrust to offer deserving families a dream to meet and have lunch with Santa.
So how would we do this? My fiancé Neil and mum Pam were talking over coffee and said let’s run a race night – once again my wonderful Slimming World members, family and friends joined together offering donations of prizes, money and their time. Darren’s family were in attendance at the race night when I was blown away by the sum we raised, almost £800. We were also blessed with the donation of the room hire at the Doncaster Deaf Trust, many thanks to them.
The morning of 15th December arrived after weeks of shopping, planning, wrapping and sleepless nights hoping the event would be amazing. I got dressed as D-Elf and was shaking with excitement and anticipation – Today was the day!!!
The children arrived and were checked on the Naughty or Nice list (thankfully they were all on the nice list) Santa arrived and told stories, had lunch, photos galore, followed by very special presents and a goody bag for each child.
The hugs and thank you’s we all received meant we’d done it, we’d kept Darren’s love for Christmas alive. With the permission from Darren’s parents, Ann and Steve and his brother Paul we have already booked next year’s event!!
I received a heart-warming message from one of the parents last night “From Oct to Dec 2016 I didn’t know if I would ever see a Christmas again with my bambinos xxx I’m so lucky xxxx THANK YOU xxxx you will never know how much today meant to me xxxx”
Merry Christmas everyone, with love in Darren’s memory.
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