Friends of Sandpipers in Southport thank local people and businesses for helping to raise £25,000

The Friends of Sandpipers have thanked local people and local businesses for their huge generosity in helping to raise over £25,000 for the centre.

Sandpipers is run by Revitalise, a national charity which has been providing much-needed respite care in a holiday setting for disabled people and carers for over 50 years.

The Sandpipers centre in Southport is in a beautiful setting alongside the northern edge of the Marine Lake.

Revitalise also offers inspirational opportunities for volunteers through one of the largest and most diverse volunteering programmes of any UK charity.

Revitalise was founded in 1963 as the Winged Fellowship Trust (WFT). In 2004 WFT became Vitalise and in 2014 Vitalise became Revitalise.

The charity currently runs three accessible holiday centres in Southport, Chigwell in Essex and Southampton.

Their mission is to enable disabled people in the UK to access essential breaks with care, and provide inspirational opportunities for volunteers.

They firmly believe that disabled people should have the same rights, freedoms, responsibilities and quality of life as those without disabilities.

Because of the Covid-19 pandemic, their fundraising has been hit very hard.

The volunteers in Friends of Sandpipers group have done an incredible job in raising over £25,000 for the charity through a number of fundraising events.

They are very grateful for all the support they have received in Southport.

Friends of Sandpipers spokesperson Brenda Porter said: “Because of the current situation Friends of Sandpipers like other charities have been restricted in our fundraising.

“Just prior to the first lockdown we held a ukulele concert at Edda and in the summer a plant sale.

“One of the most popular events we do is our Surprise Bags at our Christmas Afternoon Tea at Sandpipers and with all the lovely gifts we had collected throughout the year we decided this would be our Christmas Event 2020.

“One of the joys of our events is bringing people together…. but we had to forget that but raised £305 selling the bags within our communities.

“However because of the kindness of people buying our bags and the generous donations to the group from companies including Silcock Leisure, Dowhigh, the Financial Planning Corporation and local Ainsdale residents Sue and Jon Howard local Ainsdale residents we raised £2,105 this year at our Christmas fundraiser.

Christmas gifts wrapped by Jon and Sue Howard for the Sandpipers centre in Southport

“However it did not stop there as Sue and Jon Howard independently provided, in addition to the donation they gave to us, over 50 gifts which were beautifully wrapped to be given out to guests and carers on Christmas Day and also to include staff.

“Sandpipers Manager Darren Holloran ìs sending us photos of the gifts around the tree as due to the current Government guidelines we did not enter the Centre when the gifts were delivered.

“Sandpipers provides that proper holiday experience for those with disabilities and their carers and during these difficult times have provided both shielding and much needed respite.

“Christmas Day as usual will be spectacular with the extra surprise, to be enjoyed by all, of the gifts so kindly wrapped and provided by Sue and Jon Howard.

“Such kindness from all these people make you so very much aware of how lucky we are to live amongst such kindness and how lovely staff there are.

“Friends of Sandpipers is a local group which started our support for Revitalise Sandpipers in 2016.

“As we all look forward to Christmas and send our thanks to all those who gave their time to support our events by entertaining us and joining us we are delighted to report we have raised around £25,000 but more importantly as a team we have supported a worthy cause and met such lovely people.

“This illustrates such kindness. How kind it has been to receive such generosity from our local businesses after the horrific time we have gone through.”