Of Blankets And Bathrooms [And Harry Redknapp]

This jolly Santa was one of the trees in the West Moors Festival last week. He came from KB Installations- the company whose showroom is just up the road from St Martins Church.
I thought this was quite an unusual take on a decorated tree, and to be honest, I had never really been aware of this company [we have a perfectly adequate bathroom thankyou]
I I took my photo and moved on. 
Then I was in the cupboard at church retrieving the Christmas Decorations.
And I realised that we had a whole load of knitted blankets in bags up on the shelf, plus some woolly hats.
These had originally been destined for Romania, but the charity said they did not want any more.
So where should these ones go? 

We choose 2 charities each Christmas [one global, one local] and all the offerings from our special Christmas Services are given to them. This year, we're going with Christian Aid, and 'hope for food' which is a Bournemouth based charity.

You may have seen them last Christmas when they got into the national news. Local hero Harry Redknapp was crowned "King of the Jungle" - but found himself inundated with roly-poly puddings, having said on screen that he missed Sandra's puds when he was making the programme.
Harry donated them all to Hope For Food - and paid for custard to go with them and went down to help serve the puds to hungry and homeless people. [that's taking your giving seriously - well done 'Arry]
Well, I checked out their website and as well as food they wanted bedding, blankets and warm clothing.

That would definitely be a good place for our hats and blankets, I thought - far better that they are keeping people warm than that they sit forgotten in a cupboard. So I looked on the website for how to donate them - and there was a drop off point at BK Installations.
And when I got into the showroom the girl was so grateful - and we had a chat about their Santa Tree, and Hope for Food and our Christmas Offerings. Then she said "And our company is doing a special thing for charity too" 
They want to give something back to our community in Ferndown & West Moors So they're planning to give a new bathroom completely free of charge to one deserving individual or family who would truly benefit from it, [and who lives within an 8 mile radius of their showrooms]. How amazingly generous. This is not a huge nationwide company - but they want to share what they can. "Please take a leaflet" said the girl "There maybe someone you know of through the work your church does, who might want to be entered"
There's a lot of love, and warmth, out there this Christmas - pass it on!