Announcing our chosen charity.... Acorns Children's Hospice
The start of our partnership with Acorns Hospice
We have been trading for only a month now and as they say the hard work is really beginning as we try to share what we do in a country impacted by the effects of the virus and restrictions on our ways of life. As I write this, we are mid way through another 4 week lockdown and so getting out and showing the quality of our products in physical form is impossible for the time being and we have to rely solely on digital routes. I am not sure we could have chosen a harder time to start a new business! That said we have been very touched by the support we have had from people and we have had so much positive feedback already. We are really enjoying the challenge and very excited by the prospects for Freddie & Ivy.
At the very outset, something that both Danielle and I were very passionate about was partnering with a charity and sharing the journey of our company from the beginning. It made sense to partner with a childrens charity given that babies and children are the focus of our business. My husband Leon came across Acorns Hospice in his line of work and the charity has really touched his heart and hopefully when you read below you will see why. Having heard so much about the charity from Leon, it just felt right that we partner with Acorns and support them in any way we can. It makes me sad that we have not yet been able to visit the hospices in person, but we really look forward to doing so when the pandemic lifts. It is even more sad that such a wonderful organisation should be struggling to raise the funds it needs to provide this wonderful service for young children and their families. We feel very privileged and honoured to work with them going forward.
A little bit about Acorns Hospice and the challenge they face in the pandemic in their own words:
Acorns Children’s Hospice provides care, support, fun and laughter for life limited and life threatened babies, children and young people and support for their families.
In the past year alone, Acorns has cared for over 820 children across the West Midlands from its three hospices (Birmingham, Worcester and Walsall), within the family home and community.
When a child’s life is limited, family time is precious. Which is why, as well as providing complex medical care, Acorns help families to create lasting memories and make every day count.
Acorns is the largest children’s hospice charity in the world; it costs £7,000 per day to run each one of our 3 hospices for 24 hours and we rely heavily on the generosity of our local community to fund this. As you might imagine, traditional community fundraising has taken a massive hit during the pandemic which is of great concern to our families.
Feel free to take a virtual tour of Worcester Hospice below and see the wonderful work the charity does.
https://www.acorns.org.uk/inside-our-hospice/
So what’s next?
The plan is to help raise as much funds as we can for Acorns. We are in the process of setting up a JustGiving Page and will be running fundraisers throughout the year. We will also join in with some of the wonderful events run by Acorns. We hope that many of you will join us with these events and if you can donate then we, and Acorns Hospice will be most grateful. Any support will be gratefully received by the Charity, especially in these difficult times.
We are starting off by taking part in Acorn’s Santa’s Dash where myself and Danielle along with our husbands and children will be dressing up and running around Coventry. If anyone would like to join us (for a socially distanced run) then please do sign up and help us raise money. If you do not fancy dressing up as Santa and running round the city in the middle of winter then please look out for us and if you can sponsor us then we would be most grateful!
We look are so looking forward to working with Acorns Hospice and hope you will join us.
Jen
Freddie & Ivy