We are really proud of one of our service users, Jamie, who spent the run-up to Christmas trying to help others.
Jamie took part in a new project we launched earlier last year called Pilotlight. The aim of the project was to match people with learning disabilities to a volunteer mentor from the local community who would help them with a project of their choosing – something that would help them achieve a personal goal.
Jamie decided that his project would centre around the goal of raising £25 for homeless people at Christmas. His idea was to set up and run a cake stall at Grace Eyre’s annual Christmas Bazaar. He put a lot of work with his mentor Helen into planning it, and the stall was so successful that he smashed his fundraising target and raised £65! He chose to donate this to Crisis at Christmas.
Jamie says that he found the project “fantastic” and he learnt a lot about what it’s like to be homeless. It helped him be “really focused” and he feels he got a lot out of the experience.
We think Jamie’s story demonstrated a perfect Christmas message. At Grace Eyre, we do lots of lovely things with our service users at that time of year – but rather than showing what we do for our beneficiaries, we feel Jamie’s story is much more inspirational. He simply embodies the ethos that anyone can care for and do something nice for others at Christmas.