In St Albans, Anna Chaplaincy has been busy coordinating the annual ‘Sending love to care homes’ project. The past couple of years have seen church groups and crafty residents creating handmade stars and hearts to send to care home residents across the city. This year the theme was angels, and the community has excelled itself once again.
Over 800 handmade angels have been collected, ready to be individually wrapped and sent to care home residents across the local area. Eleven churches plus Brownie and Rainbow groups and local primary school children all got involved, producing a wonderful array of little characterful angels to send a message of love at Christmas.
Maggie Dodd, St Albans Anna Chaplaincy lead, said:
‘I couldn’t believe the incredible response this year. So many wonderful handmade gifts were collected from so many people across our local area, each angel with a different character: some knitted, some sewn, or painted and made with love. I am truly touched by the kindness of the local community.’
Before the angels were wrapped, Maggie was able to lay out most of the gifts as a record of the contributions made by the local community. The angel shape made from all the individual angels measured over six metres in height.
A local church coffee morning courageously took on the task of wrapping all the angels for the project over two sessions, fuelled by tea and mince pies. This was a huge help in getting the gifts ready for distribution.
Maggie now has the task of delivering a host of angels to the 15 local care homes in St Albans and the local area. She said:
‘I hope each of these little handmade gifts will remind each care home resident in St Albans that they are loved by their local community and prayed for this Christmas season.’
