Bondholders bring Xmas cheer to Derby City Mission

Rolls-Royce and East Midlands Railway have given a Christmas presents campaign organised by Derby City Mission a major boost.

The charity’s Christmas Connection initiative supports families feeling under pressure to get into debt again by buying presents for their children.

Derby City Mission provides gifts on their behalf to children who would otherwise go without.

From mid-November, the charity started to collect donations of new toys and books, which are then packed into age-appropriate parcels with sweets and selection packs and distributed to the families from early December.

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This year, collecting these gifts from businesses has been challenging due to the number of staff working from home.

However, according to Derby City Mission, businesses who are still in the workplace have risen to the challenge – with East Midlands Railway and Rolls-Royce among the many companies who have made a difference this year.

Gemma Humphrey and her colleagues at Rolls Royce set up a Just Giving page to raise £1,000 to buy gifts for Christmas Connection – and ended up raising £1,600.

And Abbie Winters and the team at East Midlands Railway donated more than 350 presents, as well as a financial gift to Derby City Mission’s food bank service.

Meanwhile, EMR has donated over 1,000 bottles of prosecco and wine across local hospices throughout the East Midlands this week to spread some festive cheer and say thank you for all their hard work this year.

The train operator was unable to offer the prosecco and wine to First Class passengers this year due to Covid-19, which meant a lot of leftover bottles.

As well as the booze, orange juice and smoked salmon have been donated to the hospices, including Treetops Hospice.

Neil Grabham, customer services director at EMR, said “Sharing these bottles of prosecco and wine is a great way for us to surprise and delight people in these unprecedented times.

“It’s also our little way of saying thank you to all the amazing people working in the hospices across the East Midlands who are working incredibly hard in this very challenging time to keep their patients safe and well.”