Lois and Nancy Volunteer at Hebburn Helps

FixMyCar employees get two volunteering days each year to spend giving back to charitable causes. This December, two team members, Lois Craig and Nancy Norton, decided to spread a little goodwill by lending a hand at Hebburn Helps, a community food bank and crisis response team.

Below, Lois shares her experience.

Hebburn Helps is a voluntary organisation that helps local people struggling during times of crisis. This year, their Christmas appeal received over 500 requests for help, with many referrals coming directly from teachers at local schools, simply asking that their most vulnerable students be able to get at least one gift. The charity also gets referrals from social workers and other charities in South Tyneside. Kim Davidson runs the appeal alongside her job as a Nurse and has told us that this year has been the hardest yet.  

When Nancy and I turn up on a bitterly cold December morning, the room is full of food, toys, donations and wrapping paper - it’s easy to think you've stepped into the North Pole. But when you start reading through the list of children, you can see that Kim is performing miracles, getting it all to stretch between the 250 children who still need a gift or food hamper.

Our morning consists of filling gift bags using the referral sheets to know the child’s age, gender and preferences. Each child gets a larger gift item and some smaller stocking fillers. They also get a chocolate selection box that a local supermarket has donated. The families are gifted a food hamper of tins and cupboard staples to see them through the school holidays; some are also given frozen meat and vegetables so they can have a Christmas dinner. In the afternoon, we begin to deliver the hampers, and this is where the true joy begins.

Parents are overwhelmed when we turn up with gifts and the wrapping paper so they can wrap them up, the elation at knowing a Christmas meal will be shared with their loved ones. Some parents invite us in and are on the verge of tears, no doubt pure relief. On our return to the base, we stopped to buy extra gifts for the appeal so Kim could make more hampers, which she would continue to do until Christmas Eve. By 6pm, all our deliveries are complete, we are shattered, and the stock room is emptier, but our hearts are fuller.

I am so thankful that FixMyCar gives us volunteering days, a chance to give back and really make an impact. Nancy and I will be back to help Kim next year, and I encourage you to go out and find a local cause that could benefit from your time.