ANOTHER record breaking year for the kind-hearted members of the Vale of Evesham Round Table Sleigh Team has seen more than £13,000 raised for good causes.
A staggering £13,450 was raised as part of the festive trip around the Vale where good boys and girls got a glimpse of Father Christmas before the big day.
The sum is the highest ever collected by the Round Table and dwarfs the £4,971 collected during the 2010 event.
Tim Groves, from the Round Table said: “We could not have done it without the tremendous support from all our local partner charities and organisations who received £6,013 in donations for their help with the Sleigh runs.
“For the first time this year we were also supported by the Ladies Circle and we thank them for all of their help this year,” he added.
Caring members responded the call to do a little more in terms of extra visits with an even earlier start to the annual programme of visits.
The schedule meant members hit the streets for 24 consecutive nights between November 24 and December 18 to ensure as many children as possible got to meet Father Christmas.
“As per usual, we had to brave the high winds and heavy downpours and this year we encountered freezing temperatures of -5 with and on the coldest day Santa’s beard actually froze,” Tim said.
“There is of course the maintenance to think about, and each year we have to work even harder to look after Rudolph and his crew and of course the Sleigh itself, was has been modified and repaired many times over the last 35 years.
“There is of course a lot of routine maintenance that goes on behind the scenes and we would like to thank our Sleigh maintenance crew who have put in many unpaid hours each year to keep the show on the road.
“We also could not do this without the continued support of our sponsors Listers, Stylish Blinds and ValeFresco,” he added.
Visit https://evesham.roundtable.co.uk/ for more information about the group.
