Santa steps in to help save Christmas for Wisbech Lions
Coronavirus may have spoilt Easter, blighted summer and stymied Halloween, but one charitable group are determined it won’t stop Christmas – and the Fenland Citizen is helping them.
Normally, this is the time of year when Santa would be dusting off his sleigh and carrying out any necessary repairs ready for his annual rides around the streets of Wisbech to meet children, hand out sweets and collect money for local good causes.
But unfortunately Santa’s friends at Wisbech Lions have confirmed that he will not be able to do the runs around the town, which are normally carried out over seven nights in December.
Lions president Alan Edmunds said: “The coronavirus has made it a non-starter this year, which is extremely disappointing for Santa and the Lions who look forward to meeting all the children in the lead up to Christmas.
“But we have thought long and hard about how we can save Christmas for the children of Wisbech and equally importantly raise money for local charities.
“The Santa runs are our biggest fundraiser of the year, we normally collect thousands of pounds which we then distribute throughout the year to local good causes.
“So far this year we have not been able to hold any of our usual fundraising activities so we were concerned about missing out on the Christmas events too.”
As a result of that concern Wisbech Lions with the help of the Citizen’s photographer Adam Fairbrother have come up with a way that will put a smile of children’s faces, and money in the bank for the Lions’ charitable work.
The club have had special Christmas cards printed with a picture taken by Adam of Santa in Wisbech with his reindeer at last year’s Christmas Fayre. The idea is not only to sell the cards to people to send out to family and friends, but also for parents, grandparents or guardians to buy and have Santa write a special message to their children.
The cards are selling for £1.50 each for large ones and two different designed smaller cards at £1 each and will be available at various venues through December.
But for a suggested donation of £3 you can buy a large card and Santa will write a special message of your choice to a child again this can be done at various venues.
Santa and his sleigh will be at Morrisons on December 5; Tesco on December 11 and 12 and Iceland on December 18 and 19 as well as at the Wisbech Christmas Market on December 13. He will also be in the Horsefair on dates to be arranged.
He will be socially distance chatting to children and hopefully collecting money for the Lions, but the cards will be on sale at these places.
All cards will be hand delivered by volunteers from the Lions to addresses around Wisbech and the local area before Christmas. A cut off date for the service will be December 13, but there may be capacity after that date depending on demand.
The Lions are also appealing for local businesses willing to sell the cards for Santa’s greetings, with the idea people buy them, write their message on a slip of paper which can be put in the card and posted in a collection box ready for Santa to come along and write the cards to send out to the children.
The Lions are also looking at the possibility of Santa making short greetings videos to be uploaded for a small donation – further details of this will follow.
