Christmas. A time of year that sees people acceptably drinking wine from nine in the morning, putting on pounds due to excessive food consumption, and falling asleep before your nan can forcefully attempt to offer you more. Shops heave due to the last-minute shelf-raiders, who once again have left it until a few days before - unlike mums, who will ask for your Christmas list half way through the year. Overall, for the majority it’s a day in your PJs to appreciate who and what you have.
At Ilex Content Strategies, we appreciate that this is not the case for all; which is why we donate to one or more local charities at this time of year. Our three chosen charities – Chestnut Tree House, The Sussex Snowdrop Trust and The Trussel Trust – put in outstanding efforts, from helping children and their families, to those who simply cannot afford to feed themselves day-to-day. To help you understand why we chose these charities this year, we’ve conducted a small fact file for each one.
Chestnut Tree House
Chestnut Tree House is a children’s hospice that operates within the East and West Sussex areas, as well as South East Hampshire. Established 2003, today they care for 300 children and young adults aged between 0 and 19 – all whom suffer from progressive, life-shortening conditions.
There’s various ways that you can help them stay afloat. From ‘challenge events’, fundraising, donating and even volunteering – every little helps.
The Sussex Snowdrop Trust
Having celebrated their 25th birthday this year (a huge feat considering they’re quite a small charity), The Sussex Snowdrop Trust has a similar mission to Chestnut Tree House – nursing care at home for local children, who have life-threatening illness or may be terminally ill.
At present, they have 76 children in their care, and the money raised goes towards helping parents fund transport to and from hospitals, as well as the nurses who provide care for them.
The Trussel Trust
The Trussel Trust is about fighting hunger with compassion. They run over 420 foodbanks, equaling to 1,200 centres across the UK – in the last year alone, their network gave 1,332,952 three day emergency food supplies to people in need.
Each year, the demand for food gets higher and higher, making every donation – no matter how big or small – important. So that they don’t feel the strain this winter, you can donate food, time or fundraise.
Why we donate to charity every year
At the top of our Christmas list might be the latest smart-phone or a new pair of trainers, but for others it’s about not having to think about where their next meal is coming from. In December 2016, Trussel Trust found that there was a 47% increase in demand for food supplies than the average month during the year – making it essential that they receive donations.
In other scenarios, families might spend their Christmas around a hospital bed of a loved-one, instead of a table – and then there’s the selfless people who work around the clock on Christmas day. It was predicted last year that the NHS would have 97,000 nurses, 53,000 nursing assistants, 12,000 midwives, 12,000 ambulance staff, 176,000 care workers and home carers on the go throughout the 25th of December alone – not all heroes wear capes.
As well as the donations we make at Christmas, during the summer of this year, we donated to the charity RAICE which is based in Texas, USA. RAICE is the largest immigration legal services provider in the state – but they represent their clients pro-bono, thus meaning they rely on donations. The work they do is priceless, which is just one of the reasons why we chose to donate to their association.
“At Ilex, we like to help out and be active in our community. Every year, we choose different charities to support in our local community and we’re proud to be donating to these organisations. We’ve seen tremendous growth over the last year and we believe in sharing whenever possible. As we look towards an exciting 2019, we hope that our donation can be even larger next year.”
Matthew Whalley and Lucia Barbato, Co-founders and Directors, Ilex Content Strategies
From everybody here at Ilex, we wish you an extremely happy and safe festive period. Here’s to another year!
