Presentation, Abbotprint, Cath Tate Cards and Pencil Me In are all doing their bit
Big-hearted greetings folk have been showing their true colours again with retailers, suppliers and publishers all getting involved in charitable works.
At Presentation Cards & Gifts in Barrowford, indie owner and Retas 2024 winner Andrea Pinder has got fundraising for Rosemere Cancer Foundation all wrapped up with a £1,000 donation for the second year running from the free in-store giftwrapping service, as well as £250 to Pendleside Hospice.
“No gift leaves here unwrapped,” Andrea explained, “unless the customer wishes to wrap it themselves. I buy all the paper and ribbons and do the wrapping. Customers have the option of making a donation for the service if they wish and I’m very grateful to all those who did.”
Sue Swire, fundraising manager of the foundation which provides specialist cancer treatment, said: “Gift wrapping is a real skill that a lot of us struggle with – obviously, it’s something Andrea is very good at judging by her impressed customers’ donations!”
Previously Andrea has completed cycle challenges in India, Cuba, and closer to home in the Ribble Valley to support the charity – and only last week she collected the Best Greeting Card Retailer Initiative trophy at the 2024 Retas Awards, her Christmas, Mother’s Day and Easter charity initiatives with the Open Door drop-in support centre.
Meanwhile, Simon Davis, sales executive for Rye-based greeting card print specialist Abbotprint, will be on the oche shortly in a 12-hour Macmillan Darts Marathon, with the aim of raising £3,000 to help men living with cancer – donations can be made here.
“It’s the biggest game in darts,” Simon told PG Buzz, “we’re chasing a 100,000-point target at my local pub the Rose & Crown in Ridgmont, and the aim is to get men talking about cancer one throw at a time.
Simon and his pals on the arrows will be in action on 3 August, and he admitted: “My darts skills aren’t the world’s best, I’m no Luke Littler – more Simon Small! But I can hit 26 with a one, a five and 20, pretty consistently so will be a looong day, and with the help of the other six players we can at least have a drink or two and get some donations for a wonderful charity.
“We have players from ages 23 to 103ish and have a great laugh when we play so we thought why not play darts and do our bit for The Macmillan Charity. Playing 12 hours or 100,000 points which is one hell of a target but with your help and support we can make a difference in someone’s life!”
At Cath Tate Cards the team has totalled up the numbers to discover how much its Coppafeel! initiative raised with 10% of all the publisher’s sales made in May going to the charity.
“Thanks to all of our customers for shopping with us throughout May,” director Rosie Tate said. “We’ve proudly donated £1,426 – and 30 pence!
“Our donation will go towards CoppaFeel!’s mission as a brilliant breast cancer awareness charity, focussed on educating young people on the importance of chest checking and spotting early signs of breast cancers.”
Up in Elgin, Pencil Me In owner Sarah Holmes has turned a mistake into a valuable gift for youngsters at the Divine Destiny Academy in Malawi – and had a lovely thank you video sent which can be seen below.
Sarah heard her son’s head teacher was travelling to the African nation to visit her daughter who teaches at the school in Blantyre, and said: “We had a few boxes of pencils that we’d been sent incorrectly from our supplier – round instead of hex – so I offered her as many as she wanted.
“She ended up taking four boxes – which is 576 pencils – to Malawi. We also donated some pencil sharpeners too.”
The indie store also gives away misprints from its personalised pencil printing service to the local high school although Sarah admitted: “We do have to be careful though, as some of these have rude words on them!”
And she added that, since posting about the Malawi trip on social media, another customer has contacted her as they’re also visiting the country next year: “So we’ll hopefully be able to donate more there too. And, of course, there’s the Pens for Kids UK charity who we’ve been following for a while who were also at London Stationery Show and we’re hopeful they could make use of our misprint pencils and pens.”
