Getting in a flap about alternative Christmas gifts
With Christmas almost upon us and everyone busy with last-minute shopping, one of our wonderful Ambassadors, Andrea Sims, managed to come up with a brilliant and unique way to peak the interested of her parishioners (and the whole town of Swadlincote) in our Must Have Gifts catalogue.
Here’s Andrea herself with the story:
Last Christmas I was told about how a youth group at a church in Oswestry, Shropshire had been set a challenge – to make a real difference at Christmas. Their plan was to make use of an empty shop and highlight the charity ‘Send a Cow’. What a wonderful idea, I thought.
In June 2012 I was asked by World Vision if I would consider becoming an ambassador for their work. I have sponsored children with the charity for the past nine years and was privileged to discover more when I spent some of my sabbatical visiting Aurela in Albania so I was very keen to offer more to World Vision if possible.
During September we were beginning to think about how we might promote social justice issues in Swadlincote town centre during the lead up to Christmas and it was then that the notion of the chicken shed hatched!
We looked through the World Vision gift catalogue and decided that it would be really good to try and make the alternative gifts tangible and real. We would take certain items such as clean water, a mosquito net, and maize and have them displayed alongside stories from people who had benefited from these gifts in previous years.
But what about highlighting the gifts? How could we raise awareness and press interest? Then came the thought…How about taking the gift of 5 chickens as a tool for promotion?
My colleague Janice had the great idea of using the porch of the town centre church as a venue for the shed and seeing as that congregation sponsored a child through World Vision it seemed it was meant to be!
The next step was to fill the porch with chickens so we began the Church Chicken Challenge asking all of our local churches to make chickens to reside in what became known as ‘the shed’.
Lots of people caught the vision and gave their time and skills to enable the Shed to happen. Many made chickens, some made African food for people to taste and donated heaters and one even dressed up as a chicken and gave out leaflets! Others used their skills to make a chicken coop crazy golf course and to decorate the church in an African theme to a high standard. I am indebted to all of these people for their support and enthusiasm.
It was decided that we open on a Friday and Saturday 10am-2pm to make the best of the town being at its busiest.
On Friday 24th Sharon Mcleod from World Vision came up from Milton Keynes to judge the chickens. They were in three categories; the best chicken, the cutest chicken and the funniest chicken. The three winners each received a ‘must have gift’ of five chickens which will benefit families in South Sudan.
On the evening the Swadlincote Christmas lights were switched on, approximately 100 people from our local community visited the Shed and became more aware of the work of World Vision.
I have been overwhelmed by the generosity of people who visited the Shed for I know that just over £900 worth of gifts have been bought for the worlds poorest children thanks to the people of South Derbyshire!
We’re equally humbled by the generosity of the people of Swadlincote, not least the volunteers who put so much time and effort into making the Shed a success. We’re so grateful to all our fundraisers who work to help us raise awareness of the work we do and spread the word about how a little can go a long way.
If you have a fundraising story to tell, let us know! And don’t forget to pop over to our Facebook page and share your thoughts on this amazing idea.