Christmas Tree Collection: January 2023
Published on: 03/01/2023
From Friday 13th January, 2023, and for a busy few days afterwards, a highly motivated band of Wirral Hospice St John’s staff, volunteers and supporters, will re-assemble at the hospice, ready to drive, or co-pilot, around thirty large vans around Wirral picking up used real Christmas trees from outside people’s homes and businesses.
One person takes the wheel to navigate a pre-planned postcode route, while one or two crew members will pick up the tree from each address and load it onto the back of the van.
Once each van is fully loaded with trees, it is driven to various pre-arranged temporary ‘drop-sites’ around Wirral to offload for chipping, then it’s back on the road heading out for the next load. The chipped trees have further recycled uses, maybe in biofuel or even spread around at community farms and paddocks. Other small local charities also receive around ten per cent of the monies raised.
All the people who give their valuable time are well fed and watered while fuel costs are offered to everyone who volunteers the use of their van(s).
Postcodes covered by Wirral Hospice St John’s tree collection include, CH41, CH42, CH43, CH44, CH45, CH46, CH47, CH48, CH49, CH60, CH61, CH62, CH63, CH64.
Elaine Connell, Wirral Hospice St John’s fundraising officer, said:
“We’ve got our fingers crossed for another bumper year of Christmas tree collections, the generous donations make a huge difference to the lives of so many people with life-limiting illnesses in our Wirral community. A small army of people give up their valuable time, and also the use of their vans, year after year, to help with the used Christmas tree collections. It’s always a lot of fun for our hardy volunteers and we are so grateful to them and everyone who books a collection with us.
We’re also so very, very, thankful to all those brilliant companies and organisations who lend a hand, equipment or space.”
