Quiet Heroes

When it comes to fundraising for ServeDirect, we may well make a lot of noise about it, in our attempts to be persuasive, persistent and innovative. The recent Big Give campaign was a good example of that, perhaps! However, behind the scenes and out of sight, there are often many acts of quiet kindness that continue to amaze and encourage us.

Here, we would like to pay tribute to and gratefully acknowledge the following:

• Those who continue to give by standing order, month by month - this regular support really adds up over the year and achieves a surprisingly huge amount.
• Regular deliveries of beautiful hand-crocheted baby blankets, all made with love by a talented friend and her daughter; they are distributed to new mothers at The Rock, sometimes the only gift they receive.
• A top quality ukulele and a full set of music, which was a surprise one-off donation from a ukulele-playing friend, who noticed that many students still love the set of ukuleles donated in 2016.
• Surprise donations that often come 'out of the blue' during the year from those who may have visited WTA or even Uganda years ago and have been impacted in some way. They continue to stay in touch and keep an eye on WTA news.
• The more unusual, seasonal donation of a bull for the end of term Christmas celebration - enough to feed the whole school, creating sensational memories for everyone. After over 14 weeks of mostly posho and beans, this created huge excitement.
• Those who literally 'go the extra mile' by running, walking and cycling incredible distances to raise money.
• A set of footballs sent out last term by a lifelong Everton fan, (in celebration of the World Cup!), which were a huge success during the long exam months.

• Our special thanks to all those who donated in memory of their dear family members. Thank you to the families of David Fish, Carrie Bowden and Brenda Cole, (Michèle Ball's mother), who all chose to nominate ServeDirect, when arranging their memorial services. We are very grateful for your generosity, we have many happy memories of David, Carrie and Brenda at WTA, who all stayed in touch with us over the years.    

Throughout 2022, ServeDirect has been hugely blessed by untold kindness from many supporters and friends. A huge thank you to everyone who has played a part over the last year, whether seen or unseen, all are definitely heroes. We wish you all a very Happy New Year, with reasons to be hopeful and peaceful in 2023.

"Not every day is going to offer us a chance to save somebody's life, but every day offers us an opportunity to affect one. So get in the game" (Mark Bezos, TED 2011)