Grace and peace to you all. I come to you in the hope that you will answer God’s most challenging call during this time in need.
Would you be able to help us in this act of Christian kindness?
As a chaplaincy team, we are able – by courtesy of different charities – to provide a diary, a calendar, and a Christmas card in addition to some chocolates. For some of our residents, this package of goodies will be the only present they have for Christmas.
If you are able to help, we are asking for the 740-800 gram sized tubs of ‘Heroes’, ‘Quality Street’, ‘Celebration’ or ‘Roses’, all of which are now, or soon will be, on special offer at many supermarkets. Also, Sainsbury’s and Morrisons’s have tubs of own brand chocolates. Some shops have a ‘buy one, get one free’ promotion. It is really helpful if you stick just to the tubs, as they all have to be unpacked and put into bags for each resident.
You might like to know that, with around 1300 people in the prison, we need sixteen tubs in order to provide one sweet per person: you will therefore appreciate that we need quite a few tubs if we are going to provide even two or three chocolates to each person, so the more tubs the merrier. Last year, through your generosity, we were able to give each resident over 20 sweets, which was a magnificent achievement.
This kindness from you is really appreciated by our residents, and those residents who have been here over a Christmas in the past are already asking if we are going to do it again this year. We know from previous years that many residents are deeply touched that people are thinking of them at this special time.
We will need all the tubs to be delivered around 13/14 December in order that we have time to do the packing for each resident. If you are planning on taking part would you please contact Fr. Paul Peter Paul.Alphonse@sodexogov.co.uk
During these uncertain times, let us be in solidarity among all our Brothers and Sisters. I continue to pray for the health and wellness of you and your family during this uncertain time. May God bless you all.