Ealing’s Charity Christmas Card Shop Beats Lockdown

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Online catalogue launched to provide takeaway orders by email

Rupa Huq and Steve Pound opening the shop pre-pandemic

Ealing’s long-running Charity Christmas Card Shop is set to beat the non-essential retail lockdown with the launch of its first email-order catalogue and takeaway service.

Because of Covid-19 restrictions, the annual pop-up shop has been unable to use its regular base at the Church of Christ the Saviour, New Broadway.

For its 36th year it had been planning instead to operate on five Saturdays before Christmas at Open Ealing in School Lane, Dickens Yard. Unfortunately, Open Ealing could not be used because of the national restrictions introduced on 5 November.

Instead, 19 local charity organisers have banded together to create an online catalogue and email ordering and takeaway service to make their cards, wrapping paper and postage stamps available around Ealing.

Sue Green, co-founder of the Ealing Charity Christmas Card Shop (ECCCS) said: “This Christmas more than ever before, family, friends and work colleagues will appreciate a hand-written message of love, support or just: ‘how are you?’”

She added: “You just can’t do that on Zoom, Teams, Skype or FaceTime.”

All of the money raised by the sales goes to the 19 charities: Amber Trust, Book Aid International, Bridge of Hope, British Heart Foundation, Cardiac Risk in the Young, Christian Aid, Combat Stress, Cystic Fibrosis Trust, Diabetes UK, Ealing Amnesty International, Ealing Samaritans, Friends of Hammersmith Hospital, Mind, Meadow House Hospice, Motor Neurone Disease Association, Multiple Sclerosis Trust, Parkinson’s UK, Save the Children and St Mark's Hospital Foundation.

The ECCCS catalogue is online now.

November 17, 2020