South and Mid Cheshire residents help raise more than £4,000 for St Luke’s (Cheshire) Hospice by donating over 350 Christmas trees

 

Hundreds of generous Crewe and Nantwich households helped to raise a total of £4,000 for St Luke’s (Cheshire) Hospice this weekend as part of its biggest Christmas Tree Recycling scheme yet.

For the last two years, St Luke’s have collected and chipped Christmas trees after 12^thnight, 6 January, in return for a donation to the hospice and, this year, more South Cheshire families than ever were happy to help out and save themselves time and money plus the annual hassle of taking their tree to the tip.

Volunteers from the Winsford hospice teamed up with Macclesfield based charity, JustHelping, countryside management students at Reaseheath College, Nantwich, Rotarians from Tarporley and Sandbach plus Round Tablers from Northwich and 10 volunteers from Barclays, to offer the fundraising service to homes in Crewe, Nantwich, Sandbach, Winsford, Northwich and Tarporley.

The hospice’s head of event management, Jane Thompson, said: “Over 350 trees were collected and it is a terrific boost to our funds right at the beginning of our 25^th anniversary year.

“This year’s Christmas Tree Recycling Scheme has been the best yet and we’re thrilled the final figure is expected to be more than £4,000.

“Trees were collected, in our loaned vehicles, for a donation from local businesses, schools, churches and, of course, hundreds of homes. The volunteers worked all day Saturday and were kindly fed by Domino Pizza of Winsford on their return.

“Fords of Winsford was even so generous as to offer us £50 to take their very large tree away.

“We would like to say a big thank you to everyone who asked us to collect their tree and of course to all the volunteers and the JustHelping team for their invaluable support.

“The Reaseheath College students did a great job of mulching and chipping all the collected trees.

“There was a great sense of camaraderie and it was great fun for everyone involved.”

JustHelping’s Christmas tree removal scheme started in Macclesfield and last year raised over £60,000 for East Cheshire Hospice alone, from trees collected in 2012.