Wrapping up winter at Palace for Life
A busy festive period in south London saw 50 children get a special visit from Santa, hundreds of items donated to the Norwood and Brixton foodbank, thousands raised for our free food and sport programme and winter clothes donated to local refugees.
A CRACKING CHRISTMAS GROTTO
50 students from a local school paid us a visit in mid-December to take part in our first-ever Christmas Grotto, dutifully built by our hard-working elves…AKA staff!
Each child received a present from Santa and played a variety of festive games with our staff and Palace Women stars Natalia Negri, Keira Barry and Lucy Watson at Selhurst Park in the morning.
The Christmas Grotto was designed to give children who may not otherwise get a visit from Santa, a present and a chance to meet the man himself. Each family also received a £20 ALDI voucher to help with their grocery needs in the lead-up to Christmas.
CHRISTMAS FOODBANK APPEAL
Before every home matchday throughout December, we collected food items for the Norwood and Brixton foodbank, a local charity that distributes free food parcels to local families in desperate need of support, and Palace fans came through.
Palace fans donated 120 kg (and counting!) worth of food, some of which has already been delivered to families in Norwood and Lambeth.
Before Palace’s 1-1 draw with rivals Brighton on the 21st December, Palace players Marc Guéhi, Joe Whitworth and Jefferson Lerma donated some festive gifts to our Christmas appeal, helping to make this often-difficult time of year for some, that little bit brighter.
We would like to thank everyone who donated to the foodbank, and to our sponsor Utilita Giving – your help will make a massive difference to local families.
HAF PROGRAMME
For those who were unable to come to a game, we were accepting donations to our Holidays, Activities and Food (HAF) programme, which offers free hot meals and sporting activities to children on free school meals during the school holidays. Again, Palace fans came through and raised over £2,204 which will fund the upcoming programme in the summer. This total smashed right through last year’s record of £792.
SUPPORTING HOMELESS COMMUNITIES
Volunteers from our ever-growing Asian Engagement programme, Get Involved, teamed up with the Shahid Afridi Foundation to prepare homeless communities in the UK for winter. They helped put together and distribute ‘functional winterisation kits’, full of hot food, jumpers, hats and gloves, for local homeless communities and a local refugee centre.
A spokesperson from the Shahid Afridi Foundation said:
“It’s been a pleasure collaborating with Palace for Life on various projects over the last couple of years. Palace for Life works closely with marginalised communities working in south London and the young volunteers at Palace for Life are an asset to the local community, helping them, and us do the work that we do, and we’re really looking forward to working a lot closer over the coming months.”
A massive thank you goes out to everyone who helped support local families this Christmas. Whether you shared our campaigns, donated to them to volunteered, your support will have made a huge difference.
To learn more about fundraising at Palace for Life, head here.