Wish making a difference
TWO OF THE GREAT CAUSES HELPED BY OUR FUNDS CAMPAIGN
THE Chronicle’s Wish campaign is back, with £25,000 up for grabs for worthy causes across the North East.
Whether your group specialises in animal care, activities, scouts, dancing, sports, music or looking after the elderly, you can apply for Wish 2017 and win a share of the prize pot. Now in its seventh year, the Wish campaign has become an integral park of the calendar for groups and organisations.
Last year, more than two million tokens were collected by 149 groups. Here we look at two great causes who benefitted from the campaign in 2016.
Crawford House, The Sick Children’s Trust
The Sick Children’s Trust provides free ‘home from home’ accommodation for families with critically ill children in hospital in the UK.
One of the charity’s 10 ‘homes from home’ is Crawford House which supports families with seriously ill children that require specialist treatment at the Royal Victoria Infirmary.
It has 23 family bedrooms, 14 bathrooms, a fully equipped kitchen, playroom and shared living area.
In June we told the story of Gabriella Shears, from Lynemouth, Northumberland, whose parents Chevonne and Lee stayed in Crawford House after a collapsed lung meant she needed a life-support machine.
Crawford House received £337.63 from The Chronicle’s Wish Campaign last year, going towards helping more families stay just minutes from their child in free ‘home from home’ accommodation.
Gail Stonley, Crawford House Manager, said: “We’d like to say a huge thank you to the Chronicle and all its readers for collecting tokens for us, with the money generated from this hundreds of families have been able to stay just minutes from their child’s hospital bedside. When a child is seriously ill, it’s an incredibly difficult time and The Sick Children’s Trust helps ease some of the worries families have by keeping them together by their child’s side in free ‘home from home’ accommodation
“Although our ‘home from home’ accommodation is free for families, it costs £30 to support a family for one night. We couldn’t be more grateful for being part of the Wish Campaign, it has made a huge difference to so many families and on behalf of every family we support, we’d like to say thank you.”
Bill Quay Community Farm Association
This community farm, which is based in Gateshead, is a free and popular visitor attraction which relies on donations to stay open.
Bill Quay Community Farm allows the public to learn about farming and well-being, as well as meeting animals, for free.
Since July 2013, the farm has been run by Bill Quay Community Farm Association, a registered charity which operates the farm on a not-for-profit basis for the benefit of the wider community.
All of the farm livestock is rare and indigenous. The farm is a Rare Breeds Survival Trust Approved Farm Park and has several breeding groups of animals including pigs, goats, hens and a range of small mammals such as hamsters, rabbits and more.
Last year the charity received £346.34 from the Wish campaign.
Farm manager Kelly Anderson said: “We provide activities for the community to try and teach them about farming, we also provide therapeutic work for people recovering from mental illness.
“Campaigns like this are essential to our survival, the money helps us pay the bills, feed the animals and keep a roof over their heads.”