A weekend of Christmas tree collections has brought in more than £10,000 for the Mary Stevens Hospice.
The Oldswinford charity spent the first weekend of 2019 travelling between DY2, DY3 and DY5-DY9 postcodes collecting 1,300 Christmas trees from outside supporters’ homes in exchange for a donation towards the care of the families relying on the Hospice.
Fundraisers launched the “Christmas Treecycle” in 2017, collecting 66 trees, which increased significantly to 500 bookings in 2018. This year’s event saw demand for the service skyrocket as more than 1,300 bookings flooded in for 2019.
In order to meet the hugely increased demand, the Hospice received support from volunteers and local corporate supporters, including MSC Industrial Supply Ltd, Phoenix Seating, Dustair, Rain or Shine, Pegasus Grab Hire and Owen Payne, who all provided vehicles and teams of volunteers who donated their weekends to picking up trees. Community volunteers also donated their vehicles and time to help the team complete the mammoth task.
All the trees were taken to Hagley Christmas Trees, which has supported every year of the event so far and commits to recycling all of the trees.
Laura Millard, Event Organiser, Mary Stevens Hospice said: “We have been overwhelmed by the support and enthusiasm for this year’s Treecycle which has seen an enormous increase in people taking advantage of this fantastic service.
“We are incredibly grateful to everyone who booked and to all the support we received to make the weekend possible. We are hoping that the 2020 Treecycle will see even more people getting involved.”
Louisa Gibbs, HR Co-ordinator, MSC Industrial Supply Ltd, said: “Treecycle has become something that we as a company really look forward to and we had more staff members than ever come forward to help us help the Hospice. We were only too happy to offer saws and gloves to all of the remarkable volunteers giving up their weekends to help raise so much money and we’re already having people in the office ask if they can take part next year!”
Thoughts have already turned towards the 2020 Treecycle, with all DY postcodes, except for DY4, and B63-64 now included in the collection area and volunteers signing up to take part and help out during the weekend.
Bookings have re-opened on the Hospice’s website for 2020, with some supporters already securing their slot for next year immediately following the 2019 collection.
To book online or find out more, visit: www.marystevenshospice.co.uk/event/christmas-treecycle-2020/.
