Christmas spirit aplenty in Paddington

A huge thank you to all our volunteer elves who have been spreading Christmas cheer and a touch of magic in Paddington throughout December. Despite all the challenges; between them they’ve wrapped over 200 gifts for the homeless and local school children, decorated four trees, written 80 fantastic Christmas-themed quiz questions and donated more than 400 special gifts for local residents.

The festive philanthropy kicked off at Hallfield Primary School on Wednesday 1 December, when Kingfisher colleagues spent a morning decorating the school hall, reception area and staff room in tinsel, lights and lanterns. It’s become somewhat a Christmas tradition for Kingfisher to decorate the school. Whilst fairy wings and Santa hats had to be switched for face masks and sanitiser, it was wonderful to have the team back - as the glowing feedback from school pupils and staff shows.

Next was the turn of St Mary Magdalene, where Derwent London colleagues with impressive speed wrapping skills spent three hours preparing 160 presents for all the children in the school, including larger hampers for the families of recently arrived Afghan refugee children. Motivated by a playlist of Christmas tunes and fuelled by mine pies, the team worked non-stop to ensure no present was left unwrapped.

In addition to their wrapping, Derwent London colleagues have been busy collecting gifts and fundraising for local causes. Colleagues based in their Savile Row office donated 190 gift sets, scarves, pairs of socks and nail varnish sets for women at The Marylebone Project. The Marylebone Project provides residential accommodation and a 24-hour drop-in service to vulnerable women in Westminster.

Following an urgent call for support, the Marylebone Project also received donations from colleagues at Vodafone who led a fantastic campaign and hand-delivered 50 beautifully wrapped gifts to the project and a further postal delivery of more than 100 presents. The Project has 112 residents plus the drop-in service. This incredible generosity will enable all of its service users to receive presents this Christmas time.

The Marylebone Project have not been alone in benefitting from corporate support.

• Paddington Central had an overwhelming response to their coat collection campaign for Afghan refugee families living in Paddington hotels, receiving more than 1,500 donations. The campus also collected non-perishable food for Westbourne Park Pantry and supported learning disability charity PiP with Christmas card sales. Through match funding from British Land over £2000 was raised.
• Merchant Square have collected foodie treats for residents at Penfold Community Hub and hosted a fantastic concert on the floating pocket park for the charity Music in Hospitals and Care.
• Derwent London have been encouraging colleagues and visitors to the Brunel Building in Paddington to purchase Christmas cards and support the toy appeal and virtual giving tree for St Mary's Hospital and COSMIC.
• A kind Vodafone colleague who enjoyed hosting a virtual Christmas quiz for members of Neighbourcare sent special chocolate treats to be distributed to the quiz attendees.

Our final in-person volunteer event of the festive season took place on Monday 13 December, when three fabulous colleagues who all work in The Point, decorated the Tresham Centre. The Tresham Centre for Disabled Children and Young People is a Westminster Council service for children aged 5 – 18. It runs term-time and holiday activities for children with disabilities, chronic ill health and serious life limiting or terminal illnesses. Armed with decorations, the team transformed the space into a stimulating winter wonderland.

As always we’ve been online – with teams from Vodafone and Equinor hosting Christmas-themed quizzes for Neighbourcare, chatting about traditions and doing your Christmas shopping in Costco with members of the Out and About club and discussing the (not-so Christmassy) tale of She Wolves by Helen Castor in book club.