Manchester Airport staff deliver gift packs to schools and care homes through ‘Give & Go’ campaign

• Airport colleagues volunteered to deliver gift packs and selection boxes to schools and care homes
• ‘Give & Go’ campaign for colleagues to donate toys, gifts and food items
• Raffle held with ten winners receiving gift pack and hamper

Manchester, UK, 2021-Jan-07 — /Travel PR News/ — Manchester Airport workers helped spread Christmas cheer in Woodhouse Park and the wider Wythenshawe area last month.

The airport usually puts on a Christmas lunch for Woodhouse Park residents at risk of social isolation, but was forced to cancel last year’s due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Determined locals would not miss out, they came up with the idea of a ‘Give & Go’ campaign to replace the event, encouraging co-workers to donate toys, gifts and food items.

Working with local Woodhouse Park Councillors Eddy Newman, Brian O’Neil and Sarah Judge, they arranged gift packs and a raffle for locals, in addition to delivering selection boxes to schools.

In total, 1,712 selection boxes were delivered to the Willows, St Anthony’s and Ringway primary schools. One hundred gift packs were also delivered to Wythenshawe Community Housing Group for distribution to an over-50s’ lifestyle group, whilst 51 packs were delivered to The Peele Residential Care Home and 60 packs to Marion Lauder House Care Home.

Meanwhile, volunteers from Manchester City Council’s South Manchester Neighbourhood Team and the Airport delivered gift packs to 80 Woodhouse Park residents who would otherwise have been invited to the Christmas lunch.

Airport colleagues also organised a raffle, with 10 winners receiving a gift pack and hamper delivered personally by Coun O’Neil and Coun Judge.

The ‘Give & Go’ campaign attracted more than 1,000 donations from staff at Manchester Airport, NATS, Mediafour and MASHCO, with beneficiaries including Real Food Wythenshawe, Wythenshawe food bank, Tree of Life foodbank, Community Grocery, St Paul’s High School and Knutsford Welcome Café.

Robert Pattison, Head of Community Engagement at Manchester Airports Group, said: “It was, of course, disappointing to have to cancel our annual Autumn Leaves Christmas lunch, but it was incredibly heartening to see airport colleagues with our business and community partners rally round in this way to ensure that we could still spread some festive cheer and provide help to those less fortunate in our local communities this Christmas. They are a credit to themselves and the airport and I want to thank them for their dedication.

“I would also like to thank the South Manchester Neighbourhood Team, all partners who contributed, and Couns Newman, O’Neil and Judge for their support with these efforts.

“It has been a very tough year for us all, but as 2020 ends, we are looking forward to engaging closely with our neighbouring communities across South Manchester and Cheshire in the New Year, with better times hopefully on the horizon.”

For more information on Manchester Airport’s Community Relations programme, visit https://www.manchesterairport.co.uk/community/.

Contact Information:

Manchester Airport
Tеl: 0161 489 2700
Email: press.office@manairport.co.uk

Source: Manchester Airport

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