Category: Advent Calendar

Today’s Advent Calendar Window opens for anyone who has lost a baby and for Iris-May Butterfly Kisses, a Wellingborough Charity, set up to help and support families going through pregnancy and infant loss. Founder Stephane Mills said:

I founded Iris-May butterfly kisses in memory of my daughter Iris-May, she gained her wings at 8 days old after being born prematurely at 25 weeks 2 days. I love being able to support other families going through pregnancy and infant loss, as it does feel like you on your own. I want them to know that there are people out there for them.

Iris-May Butterfly Kisses was set up because of the pain of not having something to dress Iris-May in and because Stephanie could relate to the pain that other families will be feeling when they lose their baby. You can read their full story here.

Iris May Butterfly Kisses aim is to relieve the suffering and emotional distress amongst parents and families who have experienced the loss of a baby through ectopic pregnancy, miscarriage, stillbirth, or neo-natal death; in four ways by:

1. Supporting newly bereaved parents by the provision of memory boxes and care packages. Memory boxes are filled with items to make memories such as blankets, handmade items, candles, inkless wipes with cards, sympathy cards, and memorial items.
2. Supplying books to young people in resources bags to help explain the loss of their sibling to other children.
3. Providing or assisting in the provision of bereavement suites in hospital units where such facilities are not provided by the NHS.
4. Raising funds for other charities who provide training and support to healthcare professionals, and others, to assist them in improving their help and support to such bereaved parents.

The charity was registered on 12 July 2018 and since then has provided 40 memory boxes to Rosie Maternity Unit in Cambridgeshire, and are now working with hospitals in Northamptonshire to help people locally.  They are now going further afield with their memory boxes, making them available across the UK. 

Last Christmas time they did a collection for Northampton General and Kettering General hospitals to purchase presents for patients who are staying in hospital over the Christmas period.  At Easter they donated chocolate eggs to children whose families had gone through pregnancy loss, or if they had a sibling in the neo-natal unit.

They rely on donations and the support of their fundraisers. The funds raised ensure that they can continue to offer support and comfort to families going through pregnancy and infant loss across the country. There are many ways to get involved, whether you join in at their fundraising events or even host your own fundraising event.

Please do consider giving either your time or money to this worthy cause. You can find out how on their website, or on their Facebook page. Your kindness will help them to continue supporting families during their difficult time of losing their little one.

Today’s Advent Calendar window opens for L.I.V.E. Team and all the wonderful things that they do including their free ‘Coats for Kids’. Here is a video of Debs from the team telling us about them:

L.I.V.E. stands for Learning Independence Volunteering Employment and they are a specialist team that exists to provide bespoke support to individuals (with learning disabilities and related barriers to employment) in four key areas – Learning, Independence, Volunteering and Employment.

Their aim is to provide meaningful opportunities, raise aspirations and provide support with an empowering ethos to enable individuals to fulfil their potential and exceed expectations. They teamed up with Greatwell Places to help clean up our communities during the summer, and to tidy up neglected gardens for their residents.

Since L.I.V.E. Team in Wellingborough launched ‘Coats for Kids’ on 25 October, they have handed out and helped many families in need, gifting 68 coats from their rails.

Their volunteers are currently stock-checking and washing new coat donations, to make sure they are in the best condition to be gifted out. They have a Coat for Kids rail at Swap Shop in ECO HUB Glamis Hall (NN8 3RU) on Tuesdays, Hemmingwell Community and Skills Centre (NN8 4TU) on Thursdays, and Irchester Library (NN29 7AA) six days a week.

They are still asking for donations for good condition kids coats. If you have any, please get in contact with them, and they could possibly arrange pick up or drop off. Call 07407800192 / 01604362197.

Today we open our Advent Calendar window for the Co-op and for Jonathan, their Member Pioneer in Wellingborough. He is there to connect with the community and help support local causes via Wellingborough’s Co-op stores at Olympic Way and Redhill; and today he is hosting the Co-op Christmas Winter Warmer in our ECO HUB at Glamis Hall!

Join in with the Co-op to celebrate Christmas a week early!

Join us for a hot food swap. Jonathan, invites you to share food with us this Sunday lunchtime, 12:00-3:00. The Co-op will be supplying loads of party food and we will also be cooking up some tasty treats, plus there’s festive fun and games too, all welcome!

The Co-op employs Jonathan and other local Member Pioneers to continue to build stronger and more resilient communities by supporting projects offering: Fair access to food, fair access to mental wellbeing support and fair access to education and employment for young people. New for this year, the Co-op is also supporting sustainability and climate change projects, and we are one of this year’s causes!

Support local good causes with Co-op, choose a local cause today…

When you buy selected Co-op products and services, 2p for every £1 spent goes into your membership account, and they’ll split the same between like-minded organisations and local causes. The three causes in Wellingborough are Iris-May Butterfly Kisses, Teamwork Trust and Wellingborough Eco Group. You can select the local cause you would like to support on the Co-op App or at https://membership.coop.co.uk/causes

Working together to help everyone cope with the cost-of-living crisis…

Jonathan runs the Community Resilience Forum on the last Friday afternoon each month (except December) for local people, including businesses and community organisations, to work together to help everyone cope with the cost-of-living crisis. This forum also contributes and decides with Jonathan what is on the Wellingborough Organisations website and social media outlets, which also includes Wellingborough Forum on Facebook and Nextdoor.

We can all do our bit for our community. Together, we have raised £117m to support local communities across the UK sine 2016. Become a Co-op member and help support causes in your community. Download the app, join today and join in today to celebrate Christmas early or just to enjoy each others and Co-op food at this afternoon’s Co-op Christmas Winter Warmer. You will find us at ECO HUB Glamis Hall, Goldsmith Road, Wellingborough, NN8 3RU. See you there!

We open today’s Advent Calendar for ‘We’re all in. Northants‘ and their Toy Amnesty, a toy and gift event that’s on this weekend. It takes place in the pavilion at Wilby playing fields, start time today is 12 and finishes at 3pm. Sunday start time is 11 and finishes at 2pm.

Not only will there be the gift event but there will be a tombola, refreshments, popcorn, cake, all sorts of items to buy and also an opportunity to pick up a free coat, hat and gloves. In this weather we all need these items and they are letting you choose one of each for free. (If you can afford to donate please do but not essential)

We’re All In. Northants is a limited company and group run by Kat Neale, that promotes the local events going on in Northants and also sources items for members to purchase at cheaper prices than the shops. ALL money raised goes to her other groups Wilby Community Food Group, Wellingborough Baby Bank and their chosen monthly cause.

Kat decided to run a toy amnesty through December and January, so people could have a pre-Christmas clear out and give toys with life left in them to someone new. Any good/new/like new toys will be used for families struggling to afford presents at this time.

Toys in less than this condition but that could still make a child happy are being listed on her ‘Hand Me Downation‘ Facebook group for a small food or monetary donation, proceeds again going back into the food group, the causes and baby bank. Any unadoptable toys will be recycled or upcycled by being offered on a new craft/upcycling group Kat has just launched on Facebook called Procraftination.

Come and join Kat and all at Wilby playing fields pavilion, today 12-3pm or Sunday 11am-2pm, ask questions about We’re all in. Northants and her other groups, ask how you can support these or what projects are on the horizon! Wilby Community Food Group is also open at 124 Main Road, so do visit that too while you’re in the village.