A Great Big THANK YOU!
It's Cool to Be Kind.
"Cool to be Kind" is one of the values that runs through everything that we do at Gateway, encouraging our children, families and team to be generous in the little ways and the big ways.
Here, we wanted to spotlight some of the super generous people who have been so kind this year, to Gateway, and to those around them; in the little ways and the big ways. Have a look:
A big thank you to...
8th February: This week's Cool to be Kind Hero is Robson - not only did he help Joanne move lots of boxes at the Gateway centre, but he has also designed some craft ideas for Chinese New Year. We'll feature these in this week's family bags!
Well done Robson!
8th February: A big thank you to our very own Joanne, who ran a birthday fundraiser on Facebook for Gateway North East. She raised an amazing total of £220 - wow!
Birthday fundraisers on Facebook are an easy way to raise money for a cause that you care about. If you'd like to know how you can help raise some money for Gateway North East, we would love to chat to you - every little really does help!
22nd January: Wow! We loved this update from Angela, one of the lovely members of the Gateway team:
Today we donated a trolley full of fruit and veg from Aldi, for our neighbourhood - the boys have been out delivering!
Thank you so much to Angela and to Aldi for your kindness. x
29th January: Sam has been busy this week, being kind to his little niece. What a superstar uncle!
We've got some amazingly kind young people at Gateway North East, and we love seeing these updates. Keep them coming!
18th January: Thanks to the Aviva Community Fund, and those of you who donated, we received £477 today to go towards our work. Thank you so much for this kindness - it will make a huge difference!
17th January: A HUGE thank you to Above and Beyond, and the Adventure Service Challenge Scheme, for making sure that all the children and young people who have been registered with us over the years will receive their certificates shortly, as well as a cloth badge and a lapel pin.
Look out for your certificates in the post over the next week, everyone - and thank you again to Above and Beyond for your kindness!
14th January: Today's Kindness Heroes are Lescost Transport - a big shout out to their driver, who was not only willing to wait while we got down to the centre, but also got the huge, heavy pallet of t-shirts, bags and towels into the centre for us.
Usually they would leave things outside, but we were so thankful for their kindness in helping us move our donations indoors!
13th January: Thanks to the £440 that we kindly received from the Get Fishing Fund, run by the Angling Trust, ten families will be able to take part in a Family Fishing Day during the summer.
We will be looking to do these with single households and their support bubbles - Jo, our fishing instructor, will be able to provide what is needed and instruct from a safe distance.
Wow - that's something to look forward to!
11th January: Wow, how amazing is this: there were four busses stuck in the snow, and our Nikki is out offering people hot drinks, and trying to help them get through the snow. What a superstar!
5th January: Our Cool to be Kind heroes today are Lowther Dairies, who have donated lots of milk for our activity bags this week! Thank you so much for your support!
3rd January: It's amazing that we get to see our Gateway young people being kind on Facebook. Here's Sam, who is part of our Small Steps and Stepping Out groups, taking his baby niece out for a walk. What a great photo: Uncle Sam, you're a star!
7th January: We love this photo of our delivery superstars today, showing kindness by helping lots of people get their deliveries. Thanks so much for your help, boys!
2nd January 2021: This is one of our six-year-old Mini Stars, Emily - Emily is not only kind to her brother, but has also worked really hard sorting out our weekly bags.
Thanks so much to all our our Mini Stars, and everyone who has been kind and shared presents, time, money, food, toys, clothes and everything else with us. Have an amazing new year, full of kindness x
2nd January 2021: A massive shout out to Grace in Ghana and Patrick at Hopeworks, for all of their hard work on our behalf in Ghana, this year. On Christmas Eve, Grace took loads of supplies and gifts to Castle Road School on behalf of Gateway - thank you so much to the wonderful Ghana team!
2nd January 2021: On Christmas Eve, we had an email from the CAF Bank, giving us a grant for some of our running costs. We are so grateful and those funds will be so helpful for us - thank you so much to the CAF Bank for your support.
2nd January 2021: Nikki, Angela and Nico have been amazing packing elves in the past few weeks - they've worked so hard to deliver lots of Santa's toys, activities and food. And of course, a big thank you to the driver elves who have let us use their cars - the reindeers don't like the rain!
2nd January 2021: A BIG thank you to PK, for being really kind and making a donation to Gateway - we used it to buy things for the Week 6 Family Bags, about the wise men. Being kind right now means everyone working together, so we'd like to say a huge thank you to everyone working together with us to spread kindness this Christmas.
2nd January 2021: We have been so thankful for our Christmas elves - particularly the elves that love helping us so much that they come back over and over again! Thank you again to everyone who helped to make our work in the lead up to Christmas happen x
16th December 2020: We got a lovely surprise from Swimathon, who sent us swimming hats, 4 t-shirts and towels. They generously gave us enough hats for all of our swimmers and more! Swimathon were amazing when the pandemic started, and they helped us by paying for slots in the pool that had been booked, and insurance. We are so grateful for their kindness!
15th December 2020: A massive thank you to Julie and the Salvation Army, who have packed bags of gifts for us, and to all the kind people who donated to the Sun FM appeal that made that donation possible. The bags have gone out to families and are so appreciated!
15th December 2020: Wow, what a kind lady Jennifer is. She bought all the dip and pour jars for our families at Gateway, and has put together some suggestions for how to use them on Youtube. Jennifer has also been collecting for Gateway at her chiropody practice - the donation of £41 has supplied each of our families with biscuits and dolly mixtures to decorate together over Christmas. Thank you Jennifer!
13th December 2020: Grace has bought 80 pairs of underwear for young people at the Castle Road School in Ghana, and will deliver them next week. Thank you Grace for doing an amazing job on behalf of those at Gateway - and thank you to those who donated to our Ghana project!
13th December 2020: A huuuuge thank you to our packing elves, who have been packing up this week's advent bags. Thank you everyone!
11th December 2020: A huge thank you to J.T. for the first donation to our Big Winter Give appeal, and also to the three people who donated £30 for food for our packages. It's great to see everybody being so kind!
6th December 2020: Today, we had some new packing elves join us in the grotto! Barry, Emelie, Corey, Jayden and Grandma kindly gave their time to help us get the Advent packs out. Thank you, team!
11th December 2020: We've just heard from L.L, who has kindly donated 48 bars of Faitrade chocolate! She's asked us to send them out to carers - what a kind thing to do! You've made 48 carers feel very happy and appreciated this Christmas. Thank you for your kindness!
11th December 2020: Today we've been able to donate a food hamper and a few Christmas surprises to a local primary school, to be won in a free raffle - a lovely treat for a lovely family. Thank you to everyone who donated bits!
Here's How You Can Give:
to find out more about the project, or how you can help!
(here, you can choose how much to give - either as a one-off or regular donation)