Liverpool Law Jan 2017

Charity and CSR
Weightmans Support
’Yummy’s Scouse Christmas’
On Wednesday 7th December 2016, staff from Weightmans LLP’s Liverpool office
dedicated a day to supporting vulnerable people in the community.
The story starts with Simon Whitter, a seemingly lovely, ordinary guy. What you wouldn’t
guess from looking at Simon is that he used to be homeless. Fortunately for Simon, he was
lucky and managed to turn his life around and now dedicates his time to helping others in
similar positions.
Last year, Simon organised a Christmas Day breakfast for 170 homeless people. This year,
he’s back, and it’s bigger and better than ever. Known as ‘Yummy’s Scouse Christmas’,
Simon and a tremendous team of volunteers are dedicating their Christmas Day to ensuring
that 1,000 homeless, socially excluded or elderly people, as well as marginalised families,
enjoy a full three-course meal on Christmas Day.
As if that wasn’t enough, the volunteers wanted to go a step further and make sure that each
and every attendee to the event received a gift to open. The response was overwhelming -
donations and presents came flooding in and the gifts filled a whole meeting room in
Weightmans’ Liverpool office! Hence the wrapping event. On Wednesday 7th December
2016 the team at Weightmans took time out of their busy schedules to ensure that each and
every present was wrapped in time for the main event!
Proceedings kicked off at 1:00pm with Weightmans’ staff donning Santa hats, reindeer
antlers and flashing red noses to get themselves in the Christmas spirit. Staff were joined by
press from The Echo, Made in Liverpool, Radio City and Liverpool’s very own Lord Mayor,
Roz Gladden.
After the flurry of wrapping, the presents were sorted into male/female/chocolates (the
children’s presents had already been sorted!) and the gifts for the homeless sorted into helpful
packages to assist in this cold weather, including gloves, scarves, socks, coats and hats.
Next it was off to pick up 1,000 chocolate selection boxes, kindly donated by Carpenters, as a
little extra for all those attending on Christmas Day. To keep staff in the Christmas spirit
whilst wrapping, the choir from Blueberry Park School joined in and sang carols throughout
the afternoon and into the evening! A superb performance which was more than welcomed
by the busy wrappers!
All in all, a very successful day for a wonderful cause.
On Christmas Day, there are nine locations throughout Liverpool taking part in this
wonderful event, including the Joseph Lappin Centre, the Whitechapel Centre, The Florrie
and many more. The volunteers are still desperately looking for entertainers or other
volunteers for the day and any additional donations would be gratefully received. Contact
@Yummysdinner on Twitter or Yummy’s Scouse Christmas on Facebook for more details.
In the words of Yummy’s Scouse Christmas, no one should have no one at Christmas.
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Liam Moore- Voice in the City, John Finnigan of Liverpool Homeless
Football Club, Roy Gladden- Consort, Ann O’Byrne- Deputy Mayor
Roz Gladden Lord Mayor, Sean Crotty CSR Partner Weightmans LLP
Simon Whitter- organiser of Yummy’s Scouse Christmas
www.liverpoollawsociety.co.uk 27