Volunteers are urging people to support our local hospice and make every tree count this Christmas.
The 17th annual Christmas Tree Collection will take place on one weekend only, Saturday 14th January and Sunday 15th January, and this year the collection team are aiming to raise over £100,000 for the Hospice. They are also aiming to collect and recycle 7,500 Christmas trees.
In January 2016, the Christmas Tree Collection raised over £102,000 to help the Hospice meet its fundraising need for £7,500 per day to cover the running costs. This broke the previous record of £91,000. Over 6,800 individual collections were made from over 2,080 different roads using 37 vehicles and with the support from over 130 volunteers each day they recycled over 69 tonnes of trees.
The East Cheshire Hospice Christmas Tree Collection, which was awarded a Queen's Award for Voluntary Service this year, is believed to be the world's largest, volunteer led, Christmas Tree Collection and Recycling Scheme. Since 2001 over £678,000 has been donated to the Hospice by supporters of the Christmas Tree Collection.
Richard Raymond, one of the organisers, said "We are incredibly proud to receive a Queen's Award for Voluntary Service, one of only two awarded in Cheshire this year. This is the highest recognition that a group of volunteers can have - equivalent to an MBE for the group. It recognises the massive commitment of so many people over the past 16 years.
"For the second year running, we were nominated as finalists in the National Recycling Awards."
The East Cheshire Hospice Christmas Tree Collection is a simple idea which works on the principle of save all that mess in your car by having your Christmas tree collected in return for a small donation. You book in, the volunteers will collect and recycle your old tree and collect your donation to the Hospice - no mess and no worries!"
The closing date for collection requests is 5pm on Thursday, 12th January. There is no minimum donation but volunteers request that you please give generously to support the Hospice, its patients and their families.
