Christmas Spirit

Christmas is always a very busy time at Cardinal Newman, with a plethora of festivities and charitable activities for all to get involved with. Although it looks a little different this year, we haven’t let that dampen our festive spirit. On 10^th and 11^th December, we celebrated Christmas Jumper Day, with staff and students getting dressing in their most festive jumpers and donating to charity.

Staff and students have also organised collections of food and other non-perishables for LuvPreston in order to make donations to their efforts of supplying local food banks. The College community has also been very generous with their donations of toys for the Rock FM Cash for Kids Christmas Appeal, as well as creating chocolate hampers to raffle with proceeds going to both buy gifts for the Cash for Kids Appeal and Macmillan Cancer Support and much, much more.

Each year we welcome the local elderly residents into the College for a Christmas Party, with a fabulous Christmas dinner, games and music and it is a real highlight of the year for both the College and the local residents. Although we couldn’t open our doors this year, we didn’t want our local residents to think we had forgotten about them, so our Chaplaincy team organised a collection and have created beautiful Christmas hampers, which have been delivered to all our usual guests to brighten their day and let them know we are thinking of them!

This year our Chemistry Charity Group have organised a Santathon in order to raise money for CAFOD’s work to support families living in refugee camps. They took to the streets to walk from 8 am – 8 pm and aim to raise £335 so that they can buy a super solar street-light to provide a clean, renewable source of light to allow families to walk safely around the camps at night. Refugee camps can be dangerous at night – especially for women and children, so by raising enough money to buy a Super solar street-light they hope to make it safe for more people to walk around in safety after dark. What a fabulous cause – well done to all involved!

Our Equality and Diversity Team have been busy creating a calendar for 2021 to raise money for St Catherine’s Hospice in Preston. Each month features a different inspirational role model, each one chosen to represent something taking place during that month, for example, inspired by International Women’s Day, March features Kamala Harris, the first female Vice President-Elect.

A limited number of printed calendars are for sale to students and parents for just £5, with all monies raised going to St Catherine’s Hospice. If you would like a copy you can order through wisepay, by clicking the link below.

After hearing from Roisin Pelan, an author and cancer patient, our Foundation Degree Health and Social Care students decided to raise some funds for Make 2nds Count.

Roisin spoke to the students about ‘Care from the Client’s Perspective’ in order to give them an insight into her condition, care pathways and the support she receives in her treatment of secondary and stage four breast cancer. It was really insightful and offered them a different perspective on issues surrounding patient care. Motivated by her experiences, the group set about raising £220 by organising a hamper and other prizes, including a photoshoot to raffle off. Thanks to all our University students for their generosity and hard work!