Hello guys!
So... I think it's fair to say I've been a "little" quiet on here for a while now and I'm going to talk about one of the reasons why today.
My friends and I had been organising a little project to help the homeless this Christmas and "the big day" was last Wednesday. The initiative is called Mary Christmas as the majority of us are Queen Mary students *badum tish*.
The idea came from two of my friends who wanted to do something for the homeless after seeing them go through the harsh winter last year. They bought the idea up and all of us were up for doing something. A group of us got together and planned the event... And none of us- not for a moment, thought it'd get the reception it got.
The idea was to make "winter packs" which we would distribute on a selected day. The packs contained essential toiletries, winter wear, instant noodle packs and a candy cane. All the items in the packs were either donated or bought through donations.
We only got around to making the packs a day before "the big day". I woke up pretty early to get to my friend's house so we could start with a nice breakfast before getting down to work.
We didn't get much work done as we left soon after breakfast to exchange Secret Santa gifts with the others. When we got back, however, we were working like elves would the day before Christmas. In the end, we didn't even finish all the packing.
The morning of the big day arrived and I went to my local Greggs to collect 50 chocolate muffins which they'd donated. After collecting those, I went to my friend's house again to see she'd finished the packing and the bags were ready to be distributed!
The rest of the day was a bit of a blur to be completely honest.
1. We transported the bags to uni, which was the meeting point.
2. We were given instructions as to what everyone was going to be doing.
3. We set off on our assigned routed.
4. And we distributed!
My group only got to four homeless people during the day. We had a lot of bags left which we gave to shelters and the rest we gave to a soup/food van after merging with another group.
To say it was an eventful day would be an understatement. However, the real distributions took place at night, when the others drove around and distributed the remaining packs. The night crew managed to get to around 130 homeless people which really was great.
All in all, I'm really proud of what we accomplished and am grateful to everyone who helped out: through donations to volunteering on the day. Thank you all!
The idea came from two of my friends who wanted to do something for the homeless after seeing them go through the harsh winter last year. They bought the idea up and all of us were up for doing something. A group of us got together and planned the event... And none of us- not for a moment, thought it'd get the reception it got.
The idea was to make "winter packs" which we would distribute on a selected day. The packs contained essential toiletries, winter wear, instant noodle packs and a candy cane. All the items in the packs were either donated or bought through donations.
We only got around to making the packs a day before "the big day". I woke up pretty early to get to my friend's house so we could start with a nice breakfast before getting down to work.
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| Breakfast!!! |
The morning of the big day arrived and I went to my local Greggs to collect 50 chocolate muffins which they'd donated. After collecting those, I went to my friend's house again to see she'd finished the packing and the bags were ready to be distributed!
1. We transported the bags to uni, which was the meeting point.
2. We were given instructions as to what everyone was going to be doing.
3. We set off on our assigned routed.
4. And we distributed!
My group only got to four homeless people during the day. We had a lot of bags left which we gave to shelters and the rest we gave to a soup/food van after merging with another group.
To say it was an eventful day would be an understatement. However, the real distributions took place at night, when the others drove around and distributed the remaining packs. The night crew managed to get to around 130 homeless people which really was great.
All in all, I'm really proud of what we accomplished and am grateful to everyone who helped out: through donations to volunteering on the day. Thank you all!
Our Facebook page is here and twitter is here, so do check us out! Hopefully we can do it again next year and the year after and so on...
Just to mention: Of course, uni deadlines and other bits and bobs have made me a little preoccupied too! It wasn't just Mary Christmas that had me stressing slightly. However I don't think you guys would want me to go into detail about the other things.
Until next time (which will be a lot sooner!)...
Take care,
Santhiya
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