Overall total is 117,029 (this total does not reflect the mountain of underwear that is still to be sorted and counted!)
CongratI was shocked and amazed to receive a letter from the Prime Minister, David Cameron earlier this month (perhaps not as amazed as my postman who delivered it and my Grandma who was there when it arrived) telling me that I was being recognized as a Point of Light for the work that I do with Smalls (Point of Light). For those of you who know me well, I am very reluctant to be in the spotlight but I am very grateful for the additional support we have had as a result of the media interest in the award.
Since our social media frenzy, we’ve received a huge number of parcels. A team of nearly 30 volunteers helped me start sorting and counting on Sunday 13 September and we posted a separate thank you to the senders of the parcels as there are far too many names to include here. See our recent post You’re all Pantastic but if you don’t see your name it could be that your parcel is still to be opened.
Whilst I am very grateful for all the support over the last month or so, it has brought some practical challenges! My house, garage, pantagon and bra shed can no longer cope with the daily deliveries from Royal Mail and couriers. So I was very grateful to West Lothian Council for giving me some temporary space where I can store all the underwear and at long last have a space where people can come along to help count and sort the underwear. Thanks also to the Royal Mail delivery office, Fairbairn Road, Livingston for their patience andfor working with me around timings for deliveries. The one downside to having storage space is that I can no longer blame the sackloads of parcels for making my house untidy and will need to start doing housework again.
I’m hoping you know about our latest appeal, to get 30,000 pairs of children’s pants by 26 October. I need girls and boys pants, age 3-15. The pants will be going in the Christmas shoeboxes and delivered to 10,000 children in Zambia courtesy of Operation Christmas Child. If 6000 people give 1 pack of 5 then we will do it! The address as usual to send is 108 Buchanan Crescent, Eliburn. Livingston, EH54 7EF or we have set up an Amazon wishlist – Smalls for All Christmas Pant Appeal wish list – Amazon Smalls Christmas Appeal
My thanks to Paul McNeil, Director of Operations for the Gloag Foundation for picking up 6375 pairs of pants on Friday 18 September. The ladies pants are bound for Malawi, Kenya, Sierra Leone and Madagascar and the children’s pants for Kenya.
I’m really looking forward to our black tie dinner which is being held on Saturday 3 October at the Carlton Highland Hotel in Edinburgh. Hoping it will be a pantastic night!