Tea, Cake and a Competition

We had a great time at White Stuff's 'Are You Thready?' tea party in Leamington Spa last week. It was all in aid of White Stuff's latest fundraising initiative - to create a decorated fabric patch. For each patch decorated, White Stuff will donate £5 to Guy's Gift - hooray!

29 patches were entered into the competition. They looked fabulous pegged up behind the shop's counter.

 

 Cubbington (one of our Buddy Bears) had a lovely time exploring the Leamington Spa store.

  

There were lots of cakes, sandwiches, biscuits and other appetising nibbles to choose from.

Lots of shoppers stopped by for a cup of tea and a piece of cake!

The patches all looked amazing...

It was a very tough job to choose a winner, but after much deliberation we chose this fabulous patch. Bunting, dogs, tea and cake - how very White Stuff!

Thank you so much to everyone who created a patch and thank you to the White Stuff team for hosting this wonderful event. All the patches will now going to be sent to White Stuff HQ to be made into a quilt for us...watch this space for news of the finished quilt.

Buddy Bears Join the Team

  
We’re really excited to introduce some new friends. 

AirTanker Services, based at RAF Brize Norton in Oxfordshire, has donated 100 Buddy Bears to Guy’s Gift. Leamington Bear and Katie (Guy’s Gift’s Fundraiser) had a great time visiting AirTanker recently to collect the bears. They even got to go on board one of the Voyager aircraft!

These bears are an important addition to the Guy's Gift team and they'll soon be finding new homes with the children and young people we support. By providing hugs whenever they're needed, the bears will give comfort to those who are struggling with the experience of grief and bereavement.

Lindsay Shearer, Chair of the Charity Committee at AirTanker Services said, "It’s great that we can support the work of Guy’s Gift knowing that the bears will soon be heading off to new homes and make such a difference to children’s lives". "The work that charity undertakes has a real impact on people’s lives not just now but also for their futures so we were delighted to be asked to help".

Katie, Lindsay, Leamington and the new Buddy Bears.

Thank you, AirTanker Services!

Time to Reflect

Happy new year! 2016 looks set to be another busy and exciting year for Guy's Gift. 2015 was a good year for the team and we feel privileged to have been able to support so many wonderful families throughout Warwickshire.

Our annual Lantern Walk took place in December. A good number of Guy's Gift families joined us at Coombe Country Park and over 40 of us enjoyed meeting up, creating memory stars and going for a lantern lit walk to the memory tree in the park.

It was great to see so many families.
 

 Special thanks must go to Sainsbury's in Kenilworth for kindly providing festive refreshments. 

 

Leamington Bear had a lovely time and even joined us for our walk through the park.

 

  

There were stars aplenty to be decorated with families' messages and memories.

 When all the stars had been made and everyone was full of cake and hot chocolate, we headed out into the darkness, with only our lanterns to show us the way.

When we reached the memory tree there was time to reflect, as well as a moment to come together for a group photo.

The stars looked really pretty on the memory tree - each one unique and personal to the person who had created it.