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Hi Sunshine News readers
We are in FULL on Christmas mode here at Sunshine HQ, as we plan all things Christmas Appeal. We've been digging out our Christmas knits, gathering excitedly to watch the Fenwick window unveiling (For the 20th time this week!) and dancing around to Christmas tunes thanks to Rebecca’s discovery of Heart Radio Christmas!
Oh and did I mention that we hung out with Santa last week? Yeah, we know him…..
At the beginning of last week, Lauren and I spent the full day with the big guy himself along with our friends at 8K Studios to film some very special Christmas messages for our families and supporters. You see, each Christmas Santa usually gets to meet our families and the children we support on board his Stagecoach Santa Bus which has been a firm favourite at Newcastle Christmas Market for the past two years. Our families know they can visit Santa at his friendly grotto which is a safe space accessible to all and is designed with the special needs of our families in mind. Due to the health and safety guidelines and increased security measures to keep us all safe this year, our Stagecoach grotto cannot go ahead. So The Chronicle Sunshine Team made sure we could bring Santa to you instead! The big man flew in from The North Pole to meet us in at the studio in Gateshead and he brought plenty of Christmas magic with him. Walking into the purpose created grotto at 8K studios really was like stepping through a magical portal to Santa’s front room complete with rocking chair and roaring fireplace. We will be sharing our videos with you soon and we think you will love them as much as we do. We want to say a HUGE thank you to our friends at 8K Live, Ferson and Terry, to all at Stagecoach and of course to Santa himself for giving us a magical day out of the office!
You can tune into 8K’s brand new channel Santa TV to get your daily Christmas fix from Wednesday 25th November at 7pm when the channel goes live across You Tube, Facebook and via Zoom! There’ll be plenty to keep the little ones entertained with live story time sessions, interactive grotto visits and lots of fun with the elves at their virtual workshop too! We cant wait to grab a mince pie and tune in. Head Elf Ferson said "Santa TV is offering Children and Families the opportunity to enjoy the magic of Christmas each night from Santa's Home. We are broadcasting live to bring you the Magic of Christmas from Santa's very own Living Room to yours." Families can now book Santa and his friends for private Zoom Sessions and purchase Christmas Gifts and Merchandise from the Santa Shop available on www.SantaTV.co.uk
Last Tuesday, Families Coordinator Rachel hosted an equipment round meeting with our panel of experts to assess our highest number of applications in one round ever. We've seen a staggering 52% increase in the amount of applications from our last round, proving that children living with disabilities in our region need us now more than ever. We are determined to help as many children get the things they need to live safely, comfortably and as fully as they can, but we cant do it without you.
Finally, some big news to round off our week, our friends at In Your Area have created a landing page just for us on their one stop community centered platform. In Your Area is a hyper-local digital newspaper, you can search by postcode and receive news specific to your community.
You can now read all of our columns online through the In Your Area platform and can keep up to date with our news, events and stories here https://www.inyourarea.co.uk/news/tag/chronicle-sunshine-fund/ This gives us an opportunity to share stories with new audiences from all over our region as well as keep in touch with our loyal readers who might not be able to get out for their daily news paper at the minute. We hope to see you there soon!
Stay safe
Siobhan