Age Connects Morgannwg | Christmas Card Appeal

Christmas Card Appeal

Christmas Card Appeal

Our 2024 campaign will open on November 1st with a target of passing the 2,392 cards received last year.

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The Campaign

Every year we will ask people to send us Christmas cards complete with festive messages, which our volunteers will distribute to people in residential care. This small act of kindness bring real happiness to people and ensure that everyone feels like it’s Christmas.

Why we do it?

As a charity we work with residential care homes across Bridgend, Merthyr Tydfil and Rhonda Cynon Taf, supporting residents by providing them with activities.

However, it is sad reality that many people in residential care do not receive regular visits, a problem that hits even harder at Christmas. As a result, Rhodri Poacher, one of our dedicated volunteers, came up with the idea of an annual Christmas card appeal.

According to one neuroscientist the positive feelings generated by receiving any type of card, but particularly Christmas cards, are great for health and wellbeing.

Dr Lynda Shaw said: “I firmly believe that receiving cards increases self-esteem, helps to stave off feelings of loneliness and isolation and even to ward off the early stages of depression.”

The 2023 Campaign

Our second Christmas Card Appeal launched on social media in November 2023 and the response was extraordinary. Our Facebook posts were shared hundreds of times and reached over 100,000 people in the first 10 days alone! As a result of the exposure, we were contacted by schools and clubs all wanting to support the campaign by sending in cards.

The sharing of posts allowed us to reach people far beyond our usual territory of Bridgend, Merthyr, and RCT. We received cards from all corners of Wales, as well as England, Spain Japan and even Singapore. The appeal was even covered on news websites in Asia.

With greater interest than we could have imagined, we contacted additional care homes to ask if they would like to receive cards, the response was overwhelmingly positive. Several of these also asked if their residents could write cards to go to other homes, which we were happy to facilitate.

When the campaign closed on December 12^th, we had received over 2,300 cards in 5 weeks, an incredible response from individuals and organisations. The total was more than double those sent in our first year. Cards arrived via post to our head office, by hand to our Cynon Linc post box, and in bulk by local teachers.

Our volunteers then got to work, sorting the cards, and distributing them to care homes across the three counties where we work. The reaction from residents was wonderful to see and we received many photos of cards being opened.

GET INVOLVED IN 2024

Supporting our campaign is easy. Just buy a Christmas card, write your personal message inside and send it to our Cynon Linc head office in Aberdare or take it to one of our three drop off points. Many people also like to write a little about themselves in the card, so please do so if you wish. The campaign will open on November 1^st and will close on December 13^th, so our volunteers have time to distribute the cards to care homes.

We have three drop off points for our 2024 campaign.

Aberdare – Age Connects Morgannwg

Cynon Linc, Seymour Street, Aberdare, CF44 7BD. (9-5pm, Mon-Fri)

Merthyr - Gellideg Wellbeing Centre

Canol-Y-Bryn, Heol Tai Mawr, Gellideg, Merthyr Tydfil CF48 1ND (9am-4pm, Mon-Fri)

Pontyclun - Cafe 50

Heol Yr Orsaf, Pontyclun CF72 9EE (9am-3pm, Mon-Fri)

If you would like to support the campaign but don’t have time to write cards you can make a small donation here

DONATE HERE

Send your cards to:

Christmas Card Appeal

Age Connects Morgannwg