As surely everyone knows by now, it was the Christmas
collections that prompted me to join Rotary in the first place. I can remember,
as a child in Staines, when the Christmas float would come down our road, with
Santa riding inside (this was in the days before Health & safety was
invented) and carols playing. It was a magical time, which I looked forward to
every year. Although I didn’t know at the time that it was organised by the
local Rotary Club, I subsequently learnt that up and down the country, Rotary
Clubs were organising similar activities.
Street Collection
40-odd years later, I found myself doing a talk to
Shepperton Aurora Rotary Club about The Princes Trust, when I was asked if I
would like to join Rotary. To be honest it took me a few weeks to think about
it, but three things swayed me: firstly I was working locally again after 9
years commuting to London, so it seemed appropriate to get involved in a
charitable organisation based in Shepperton; secondly it was (and still is) a
breakfast meeting club, meaning that I could attend a meeting once a week
without being late for work; and thirdly, they did the Christmas sleigh each
year. The third reason was probably the decider for me, as I would now have a
chance to be part of that magic at Christmas time.
It is a busy time for the Rotary Club, as during December we
do 5 street collections, 1 static collection in the High Street, 2 days outside
Tesco in Sunbury, and one evening touring the pubs and restaurants of
Shepperton. Then there is Big Tree Night in Shepperton, now a very big
occasion, arguably bigger than the Summer Fair.
To complicate things even more, our mother club, Shepperton &
Sunbury use our sleigh as well for a similar number of days.
Collecting outside Tesco store
Organising our Christmas activities is a very big job (I
should know I did it in 2015), and this year we had a team of 2, namely Pauline
and Doreen, known collectively as ‘Paureen’. The work really starts in January,
when we try to agree collection dates at Tesco. This year it took a little
longer, but by September both clubs had two collection dates in mid-December,
thanks to the management at the store, who have proved to be very supportive in
a number of ways. Also during September, all our other dates are fixed in
conjunction with the other club.
Christmas in the High Street
At the end of November our sleigh comes out of its store,
gets refurbished as necessary, and lives at John’s house until the end of
December. John prepares the sleigh for every outing, making sure everything
works and the generator is filled with fuel. He makes sure collection buckets
are sealed and ready for use, and there are plenty of sweets for Santa (I mean
for Santa to give out to children)
I had the privilege of accompanying Santa on our first
outing at the beginning of December, when we toured the Studios Estate area of
Shepperton. It is difficult to describe the excitement that is generated by
Santa’s appearance in the neighbourhood. Children come running out into the
street, parents want to take photos, even teenagers want selfies with Santa (a
sign of the times). He had a good technique of knowing the name of every child
he met, which adds to the magic, and whilst the Rotary members went from door
to door with their collection buckets, Santa was only interested in meeting the
kids, checking whether they are on his good list or naughty list, and
establishing what they want for Christmas.
Christmas in the High Street - one year later
On these outings it is interesting to learn the current
fashions in terms of toys wanted by children. This year seemed quite low-tech
compared to others. Although there were the inevitable requests for i-phones
and i-pads, which left parents rolling their eyes skywards, there were also a
lot of requests for yo-yos, which seem popular this year, as are scooters and
bikes. Father Christmas always finished by offering the kids (and sometimes
their parents) one of his magic sweets, and telling them they need to be good
in the run up to Christmas. Most kids accept this without question, but there
was one exception. When Santa said to one young lad ‘Do you think you can be
good for another 13 days?’ he responded ‘I thought it was 12 days.’ This had
Santa checking the days on his fingers to see who was right. I actually think
the boy was smarter than we gave him credit for. He knew he only had to be good
until Christmas Eve, not Christmas Day.
Meeting the children
It wasn’t just the children who were excited to meet Santa.
A lot of middle aged women also wanted a hug from Father Christmas, and he was
happy to oblige. At one point he had 6 or 7 women posing for pictures with him,
with each one wanting a photo on her own camera. It does hold up our progress
when this sort of thing happens, but we are just happy that people are enjoying
the tradition of Santa and his sleigh coming down the road. A lot of mums told
me that they remember this happening when they were children, and wanted their
own children to experience it.
Santa gets mobbed
On another evening Chris Arnot had the job of accompanying
Santa, it was the first time he had done so, and the evening didn’t get off to
a very good start. The first child Santa met went into paroxysms of terror at
the sight of him and just wanted to run away. The second one, a little older,
accused him of being a fake! Despite this inauspicious start, things got better
as he progressed.
That evening Santa was in Charlton Village, where in recent
years there has been a street party outside one particular house in Walnut Tree
Road, which has an amazing array of lights outside the house. This year, to
ensure the event was weather-proof, it was held in the Harrow pub, and Santa
popped in there to meet all the kids. His helpers gratefully accepted a glass
of mulled wine, but Santa had to refuse. He needed a clear head for all the
kids he was to meet, and besides that, red stains down his beard wouldn’t look
too good, would it?
Party time in Charlton Village
Going back to the decorated house in Charlton Village, we
paused for our usual photograph outside. The owners, Derrick and Karen, are
good supporters of the Rotary Club, and keep one of our collection buckets
outside their house, so that people who stop to admire the decorations can
nmake a small donation to charity whilst doing so. The bucket is then returned
to the Rotary Club after Christmas, and the amount collected is handed over.
This year they handed us a magnificent £150, representing donations into the
bucket, and a further £50 raised at the party in the Harrow that night. I
suspect that the bucket probably raised somewhat less than the figure stated,
and that Derrick and Karen generously topped it up themselves before handing it
over.
Derrick and Karen's house
They are not the only generous individuals we encounter at
Christmas. Whilst I was collecting in the High St this year, I was approached
by a man who wished to make a donation of £1,000 to our Benevolent fund, on
condition it was used to assist local causes. I quickly confirmed that he could
indeed put such a condition on his donation and we would certainly honour his
wishes. It transpired that his wife stopped Brian Holt last year and made a
similar donation to us. The generosity of some people is truly staggering
sometimes.
Counting up at the end of the evening
Tesco in Sunbury have also been great supporters this year.
Between the two Shepperton Rotary Clubs, we collected over £3,000 outside the
store. We like to think that we add to the shopping experience of their
customers by parking our sleigh outside, belting out Christmas music. It looks
particularly special after dark, when the sleigh’s lights look quite
spectacular. People of all ages stop and admire the sleigh, and our elf (newly
refurbished this year) with lots of photos taken. Tesco staff members
periodically came out with hot drinks for our collectors. The Store management
told us they had a lot of positive feedback from customers about Rotary’s
presence at the store which was gratifying to hear. We met the management
shortly after Christmas and were offered six days next December, two more than
usual, which we gratefully accepted.
Our elf meets his twin at Tesco
Big Tree Night is now a well-established event during
December, and several thousand people attended this year. The High Street is
closed for the evening, and there are children’s rides, street food, and
various stalls to interest passers by.
It’s a great event to be at, and the Rotary Club had a stall, as usual.
We were situated outside Trio pharmacy for the second year, and once again the
pharmacy kindly allowed us to plug our lights into their electricity supply
until they closed at 7.30 p.m. After that, we had a generator borrowed from a
friend of Pauline’s which provided power for the rest of the evening.
Our stall at Big Tree Night
Our idea for the stall was a kind of static Treasure Hunt.
The premise was that Santa has lost his sleigh somewhere in Shepperton. We have a large map of the village, and for
£1 children (and often, adults) can guess where the sleigh is, by placing a
numbered sticker on the map. The nearest to the correct spot wins a soft toy
and £25 voucher, but everybody who enters wins a small prize, which makes it an
attractive competition to enter. At times we had crowds of families gathered
around our stall, and overall we collected nearly £300. Not a massive amount
considering the effort involved, but it was great fun, and of course we become
an integral part of a community event which is important for us.
Bees round a honey pot
I enjoyed the first meeting of the New Year, when we heard
mostly hilarious stories from Santa’s experiences over Christmas. Then it was time
for our annual de-briefing when we try to see what we could do better next
time. All that remained now was to give
cheques to the charities who helped us on four of our street collections. The
deal is that if a charity helps us on a collection evening, they get 80% of
what we collect that night. It’s nice to invite them to one of our meetings and
make a bit of a ceremony of thanking them for their support.
My friend Betty Greenwood from CRUSE NW Surrey receives a cheque
So, Christmas is over for another year and the sleigh has
been put away. Can’t wait for next December
when we can do it all over again!
I think our elf has overdone it with the mulled wine
