Every child should be given the chance to learn how to read. With this in mind we collected books for the month of February to donate to Read Manchester in time for world book day to give all little learners the chance to get lost in a story.

Read Manchester is an initiative led by the National Literacy Trust in partnership with Manchester city council. The initiative works to engage local families with books to encourage them to make reading a priority in everyday lives and end the cycle of illiteracy. EYR’s donation of 93 books has been distributed by Read Manchester to food banks, schools and learning centres to support children and families around Manchester.

For our March donation we focused our efforts on raising money for Comic Relief! Comic Relief is a charity that work to support various projects around the UK and across the world. Their aim is to support people breaking free from poverty, violence and discrimination and this year their efforts were turned towards people feeling the war in Ukraine.

Our efforts to support this amazing charity included:

- donating red noses to our customers

- hosting a raffle

- racing each other in a red nose and spoon race

With Christmas being such a crucial time to look out for those around us, we extended our offerings once again to the local Stretford foodbank. The foodbank is part of a nationwide initiative to combat poverty and hunger and from October onwards, the charity launches its Christmas appeal initiative. This initiative aims to ensure each family can celebrate Christmas in some way or another.

With this in mind, the team at EYR headquarters got together to donate festive food items, from Christmas puddings, to chocolate coins for children and everything in between. The Stretford Foodbank is a charity we are proud to work with.

Here in Manchester, a little sunshine is always welcome.

Young Minds is a charity that works tirelessly to ensure that all young people can get the mental health support that they need, when they need it.

Launched by Young Minds to help spread awareness of the importance of actively nurturing young peoples' wellbeing, the #HelloYellow campaign was supported by everyone at EYR headquarters. We all donned something yellow and took part in activities to raise money for the charity.

In August we went to visit our friends over at Francis House, Derrian House and Ronald McDonald House. These charities offer care for children and young adults with life limiting or life threatening conditions and provide essential support for their families.

We gifted a total of 3 pallets, which is around 75 boxes of stock including: decorations, tableware, hats, piñatas and more to support the hospices in allowing children and their families can focus on commemorating every event, making their experience and time in the hospice the best it can be.

“On behalf of the children and families at Francis House Children’s Hospice I would like to thank you for the recent donation of party items – I am still wading through it all! I am confident that all this will be put to good use and bring a smile to many faces” – Julie Williams, Fundraising Officer