Diverse Abilities, Dorset’s disability charity, recently raised £7,800 by collecting Christmas trees to be recycled.
Over the course of three days in January, over 1,000 Christmas trees were collected from local residents in Dorset after they pre-booked their collections making a minimum of £5 donation per tree. The initiative was so popular this year, bookings closed three days early due to full capacity.
Volunteers gave their time and lent their vans to collect trees from Poole, Bournemouth, Christchurch and other areas of East Dorset.
Nicole Warrilow, corporate and community manager at Diverse Abilities, said: “This was our fourth year of collecting and recycling Christmas trees and it was a great success. A huge thank you to everyone that supported our tree-cycling initiative. Not only does it take away the hassle for local residents disposing of their tree, but it raises funds to further support children and adults living with disabilities in Dorset.
“Special thanks go to our sponsors – Maidmans Moving & Storage, Keyfort and Timbers Tree Care, all our amazing volunteers who worked incredibly hard and drove all around Dorset, Abacus for providing extra vans for collections, Stewarts for allowing us to chip trees at its Broomhill centre and the local councils for their help promoting the scheme and arranging for some of the trees to be recycled at Nuffield and Millhams Recycling Centres, and Meyrick Park.”
Jo Swinton, from Maidmans Moving & Storage, said: “Once again, we at Maidmans are delighted to have assisted Diverse Abilities collect well over 1,000 Christmas trees for recycling. This has been the most successful campaign to date and will help many people with disabilities. Our drivers welcomed a change to their usual day-to-day removals job and were thrilled to assist a fantastic local charity.”
It is hoped that for next year’s tree collections more volunteers can give their time to help the charity collect trees, so more local residents in Dorset can receive the help of this service.
If you would like to express interest in the Christmas tree recycling scheme for next year, whether that is for a collection or to lend a hand, please call Nicole on 01202 718266 or email Nicole.warrilow@diverseabilities.org.uk