The 2010 Christmas Tree collection will mark 10 years for the service which has so far raised over £159,000 for the East Cheshire Hospice.
Richard Raymond, one of the organisers of this impressive operation told us “It’s a simple idea which works on the principal of save all that mess in your car by having your Christmas Tree collected in return for a small donation. You book in with us and we will collect and recycle your old tree and collect your donation to the hospice - no mess and no worries. All of your donation goes to the hospice.”
Last year’s collection raised over £45,000 for the hospice which costs over £5,500 per day to run. Less than 23% of the annual running costs are provided by grants from health authorities, which means £38,500 per week has to be raised by voluntary contributions, legacies and various fundraising events.
In January 2009 over 4,300 Christmas trees were collected, which required the help of 120 volunteers on each day and 30 lorries completed 46 rounds. Over 47 tonnes of Christmas Trees were recycled which is equivalent to 10 African elephants!
This year the target is to collect and recycle over 5000 trees during the weekend of the 9th and 10th of January. Richard explained that “We suggest a minimum donation of £4 per tree, this will run the hospice for 1 minute! However it is a worthwhile cause so please give generously if you can.”
The Christmas Tree collection operates in SK9, SK10, SK11, SK12 and WA16. The easiest way to register is online and the closing date for collection requests is Thursday, 7th January.
