The Sunday Morning Initiative
09 August 2019
Have you ever wondered where our Civvies day money goes? We have raised thousands of pounds this year for our corporate charity, Homelessness, which has contributed to supporting so many worthy and local causes. We have spoken to our Director, Donna Scully, who is often on the front line witnessing its profound effect.
We first started working with Fans Supporting Foodbanks over a year ago when they approached me to see if we would be interested in helping set up and fund a drop-in breakfast club in Birkenhead because there is nowhere for homeless people to go over the weekend. I said yes straight away and for the past year we have funded, supported and given hands-on support every Sunday. The amount of people attending has grown to about 80-100 every week. They receive unlimited hot and cold drinks, cereal and a full English Breakfast. We have hairdressers who come along monthly, and an optician attends to support the people who need it.
Our work with the homeless originally started a number of years ago through Simon Whitter and the Yummys Café. We have helped Simon to raise funds year after year to provide a Christmas meal for the hungry, homeless, lonely and vulnerable on Christmas day. This year you have all helped raise an incredible £725 through the Halloween raffle, with the company adding an additional £275 equalling a total amount of £1,000 towards Yummys Christmas!
I absolutely love volunteering on Sunday morning, even if I have to set my alarm for 7 am and have been out the night before! I always come away feeling that it has been a productive and happy few hours. The people who come along go out afterwards watered, fed and hopefully knowing that somebody cares about them. All the volunteers are lovely and we have a great laugh putting it all together. Our motto is that anybody can come along and they will be made very welcome. People don’t need to feel ashamed, we don’t judge anybody.
The people, although desperate, are always great to deal with and have lovely manners. There are a lot of regulars but new people do turn up each week too. I am sad to see so many young people and so many more women than I expected. People just lose their job, then their home and the next thing they are on the streets. It happens so easily. Carpenters fundraising is vital to the Sunday Morning Breakfast Initiative. We have funded it from a lot of different initiatives.
These include Civvies days, raffles of LFC tickets and signed photos, money from the vending machine and any other way I can raise money. My friends and I took part in Liverpool’s Santa Dash and managed to raise £2,000. They really appreciate what we do and, without us, the Sunday Morning Breakfast Initiative would not survive.
Firstly, I want to thank you for all the fundraising you do. As a firm our community spirit is unbelievable. I could not be more proud. The amount of good causes you support and the stuff you do, day in day out, is a credit to you all. You are making a huge difference. It is sad that in 2019 so many of our fellow men are homeless, hungry and destitute. Please keep up the good work and if you have any ideas to help us fundraise, we’d love to hear them.
Donna Scully, Director
