Jersey Hospice scheme raises £23,000

Jersey Hospice Care’s 2011 Christmas tree recycling scheme has raised more money than ever before.

Almost £23,000 has been raised in aid of Jersey Hospice Care - the most in its six year history.

Around 1,600 Christmas trees from homes all over the island were collected by 40 volunteers last weekend.

They were disposed of at the green waste site and recycled in return for a donation.

The charity revealed that online registration of donations continues to increase in popularity, with 200 more islanders compared to last year choosing to register this way.

This year’s tree recycling scheme was sponsored once again by Brewin Dolphin which means 100% of the £23,000 raised will go to the charity which cares for islanders with cancer and motor neurone disease within their homes and at Clarkson House.

The collection mapping process was modernised this year thanks to Digimap Jersey which made it much easier for volunteers to find properties that had registered their Christmas trees.

Jersey Hospice Care Fundraising volunteer Matt Falla said: “The new mapping system worked brilliantly, the process has come a long way from the manual process exercise of looking each property up in the Jersey Almanac and marking it by pen!

"With this scheme, everyone’s a winner - islanders have a hassle free way of disposing of their trees after Christmas and Jersey Hospice Care receives an incredible £23,000."

“We are so grateful to our sponsors the independent investment managers and stockbrokers Brewin Dolphin and Digimap Jersey and to Webreality who host the Hospice website and set up the tree registrations online. We are also very grateful to the volunteers who took telephone orders, the data inputters, the drivers and all those who spent their weekend picking up Christmas trees - thank you.”

Jersey Hospice Care Fundraising will be running the scheme again next year and this will be launched in December.

Each year the event contributes towards the funds raised for the Bedell Group Challenges in aid of Jersey Hospice Care as the cycle and trek challengers are among the volunteers who help with the tree collections.

Volunteers were raising money this time for the Bedell Group South Africa Challenge which takes place in November 2011.

For more information about Jersey Hospice Care you can call 510349 or log on to www.jerseyhospicecare.com


(from CTV)