Dorset charity Weldmar Hospicecare has raised an incredible £16,778 in its most successful annual Treecycle campaign to date. 1,440 trees were collected by volunteers from across the county, in return for donations to the charity.
The money raised from supporters’ generous donations will help to fund the specialist end of life care for adults with a life limiting illness across Dorset, and support for their loved ones. With increasing costs of providing services, the money raised from initiatives such as this is needed more than ever.
Weldmar Fundraising Lead Fiona Hansford, leads the initiative, she said “We are blown away by the amount of support we have had from the local community, which has led us to having yet another record-breaking year, both for the amount of trees collected and the amount raised for Weldmar Hospicecare. I enjoy going out and helping collect the trees, the volunteers who offer their time to collect the trees are amazing and we couldn’t do it without them. We are also extremely grateful to Trinity Street Christmas Trees for partnering with us yet again and for all of the work they put into helping it run smoothly.”
The initiative was again in partnership with the fabulous team at Trinity Street Christmas Trees, who coordinated the collections and logistics, helped to recruit volunteers, and arranged for the trees to be chipped and recycled. The chipping of the trees was carried out free of charge by Treecycle supporters Knighton Countryside Management. Weldmar Hospicecare has a continued commitment to sustainability, and is proud that the tree chippings will be turned into biomass fuel, which is a renewable energy source.
Weldmar were also supported by many other local businesses across Dorset and their additional thanks goes to Beaminster Motors, Bridport Town Council, and Dorset County Showground, for letting them use their grounds and premises as locations to drop off the trees, Dorset Vehicle Rentals for providing trucks for the weekend without charge, and to Magna Housing and Pipefix Ltd who both supplied volunteers and vehicles to be part of the collection team.
Tamzin Hyde from Trinity Street Christmas Trees said: “It was a pleasure as always to partner with Weldmar on their annual Treecycle scheme – we had an incredibly hard-working team of volunteers who took it all in their stride and were lovely to work with. It’s so rewarding to end the weekend of collections knowing that we have raised such a fantastic contribution to the wonderful care that Weldmar provides.”
