PHOTO OPPORTUNITY – Graham will be visiting The Donna Louise Hospice in February to hand over the cheque from his 2019 fundraising. More details to follow.
The Weston Christmas Light Display shone bright once again throughout December and its founder and organiser Graham Witter has announced that the 2019 display has raised a phenomenal £32,540 for The Donna Louise Hospice for children and young people.
For the seventh year running, 25 year old Graham transformed his family home and garden into a Winter Wonderland with thousands of twinkling lights, decorations and animated silhouettes.
The success of December’s display has taken Graham’s overall fundraising total for the hospice to a breath-taking £124,850 in the seven years since he founded this community fundraising event.
And to top off the display’s outstanding success, Graham was delighted to be named the Best Large Outdoor Display in The Mirror newspaper’s national Best Christmas Light Display competition 2019.
Each year Graham creates the amazing display in memory of his late sister Jessica, who spent time at The Donna Louise in Trentham. Since it first began in 2013 the display has grown every year and has become hugely popular, with more than 18,000 people visiting the farm in December alone.
Graham said, “I continue to be overwhelmed by the amazing support for my festive fundraiser. I’d like to say a special thank you to all my community friends and visitors, and to each local organisation that sponsored and supported my festive fundraiser in December. In particular I’d like to say a special thank you to our principal sponsor, Swansway Motor Group, and to our event partner, Whitby Morrison.”
The display involves hundreds of hours of hard work, and months of planning and preparation beforehand for Graham and his family. And, each night throughout December, Graham, his family, friends and volunteers, are on hand - whatever the weather - to welcome visitors to the display.
Graham added, “I’d also like to say a special mention and thank you to my Mum, Dad, friends and amazing volunteers who gave up their own time to support me throughout December. It is a huge team effort to make the display possible and I’m so grateful for their continued support. To know that the display has brought festive cheer and laughter to families across our local community makes all the hard work worthwhile.”
In addition to experiencing the thousands of colourful lights and animated decorations, visitors to the display, were able to visit Santa’s Grotto, indulge on a #festiveicecream and have their own #sleighselfie with Santa.
Simon Fuller, Chief Executive of The Donna Louise, said, “I’m totally overwhelmed by the fantastic support Graham continues to give to The Donna Louise. To have raised more than £32,540 is truly breathtaking. I know that it takes him months of planning, and weeks of hard work, to put all the decorations and lights together and I’m so grateful for his dedication. On behalf of all the children and young people, and their families, who will benefit from this money, I know that everyone at The Donna Louise would like to join me in saying a huge, heartfelt thank you to Graham.”
The £32,540 that Graham has raised will fund a care support worker for 12 months and this year’s training programme for hospice care staff.
Jayne Dono
Relationship Assistant
The Donna Louise Hospice for children & young people
1 Grace Road, Trentham, Stoke on Trent, ST4 8FN
Tel: 01782 654444
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