School children from Whinstone Primary School joined staff at Teesside for a fun-filled festive workshop on Friday (8th December 2017) to create Christmas decorations for the centre’s long-term charity partner and local hospice, Zoë’s Place.
Working with Santa’s elves, the 25 pupils created their own elves masks to take home and also devoted time to making a festive picture decoration to be sent to Zoë’s Place.
Zoë’s Place is a charity based in Middlesbrough which provides palliative, respite and end of life care to babies and infants from birth to five years old who suffer from life-limiting or life-threatening conditions.
Throughout the Christmas period Teesside is hosting a range of activities to support Zoë’s Place and encourage shoppers to make donations to the local hospice. This includes a Christmas wrapping station on the 15th December where gifts can be expertly wrapped in return for a small donation, and a ‘Give a gift’ tree where shoppers have until the 23rdDecember to donate Christmas gifts which will be hand delivered by Teesside staff to children at Zoë’s Place.
Mike Clarke, centre director at Teesside, said: “It’s been a lovely afternoon and great to have local school children in our Elves’ Workshop enjoying themselves. We were impressed by all their wonderful crafts, and especially the lovely picture for the hospice.
“Zoë’s Place holds a special place in our hearts here at Teesside, especially at this time of year. We’ve worked with the hospice for more than ten years now and our shoppers have been very generous with donations throughout that time. We’re sure they will be as supportive as ever this year, and it’s great to see some of our youngest visitors kick starting things this afternoon!”
Teesside’s Elves’ Workshop, which can be found upstairs in the management suite, is open to the public and is hosting a range of family events in the run up to Christmas including:
- Friday 15th December (3pm – 8pm) – Christmas wrap station: Pay a small price for your gifts to be expertly wrapped, with all proceeds going to Zoë’s Place
- Saturday 16th December (11am – 4pm) – Toy Testing: The elves need a hand to test and rate this year’s must-have toys
- Sunday 17th December (11am – 4pm) – Sewing class – elf headbands: A great chance to learn a new skill, families can have a go at getting creative
- Friday 22nd December (12pm – 5pm) – Mrs Claus’ Cookie School: Help Mrs Claus to bake some classic Christmas treats
- Friday 23rd December (11am – 4pm) – Jump Up Elves: With Christmas just around the corner, help the elves with some last-minute crafts