Inverness Leisure staff choose to help Highland homeless
The “Green Team” from Inverness Leisure, which is made up primarily of front-line staff are inviting their many customers to ‘Celebrate and Give’ this Christmas by collecting essential gifts for the Highland Homeless Trust in Inverness.
The group which is chaired by Clerical Assistant, Ivana Curuvija have arranged for items to be dropped off at the leisure centre’s reception desk up until midday on Wednesday 23rd December when the gifts will be delivered to the Highland Homeless Trust for distribution at their annual Christmas lunch.
Speaking about the initiative, Ivana said, “The Green team was pulled together to look at various ways Inverness Leisure could look to make itself more efficient, however we were also asked to look at other green areas and came up with a way of looking to do a bit of recycling whilst helping out a charity.
“So whilst the ‘Celebrate & Give’ idea is primarily a bit of Christmas charity fundraising where we hope our customers will offer new or unused (with the labels still on) which will be given direct to people who are going to be homeless over the Christmas period, it also indirectly does a bit for recycling of those bargains that people bought, hung in the wardrobe but never actually wore.
She went on, “We therefore spoke with representatives from the Highland Homeless Trust to establish what kind of items they may be looking for over the festive period and they have come up with a list of basics which homeless people and families need at this time. We are therefore asking our customers to donate and give such items as gloves, scarves, jumpers, towels, socks, blankets, toiletries, warm drink flasks, jackets or coats.
“There is effectively something on the list from under a pound upwards, so this means that every customer from our youngest to older can do something this Christmas to help out people who may be less fortunate than they are over the period.”
Speaking about the initiative General Manager James Martin said, “When the Green Team spoke to me about the ‘Celebrate & Give’ initiative I thought it was a terrific idea for the team to pick an organisation that not only uses Inverness Leisure; but who can also be forgotten about at this time of year.
“I would applaud the team for this initiative and just hope that our many staff and customers get behind it and drop off some items that can then be distributed to the Highland Homeless Trust over the festive period.
Anyone wishing to donate a new or unused item to the Inverness Leisure ‘Celebrate & Give’ Christmas initiative can drop them off at the Leisure Centre’s reception desk between 8th – 23rd December 2009. (Any unused items must still have the label attached).