Welcome and a review of 2009

Christmas time means different things to different people but generally speaking we like to share our time and love with family and friends, we like to spend our money on gifts that would make these people happy and we like to take time out to understand what has been going on in our lives, so that we can decide if we want to make a change for next year. In the year that Michael Jackson died, Joe McElderry won the X Factor, Ryan Giggs was finally made Sports Personality of the Year, Slumdog Millionaire won Oscars galore we at Kids First have tightened our belts, worked numerous hours, pounded the streets come rain or shine, facebooked, tweeted, called, written and met numerous people.

When we review our situation last December things were very different. Woolworths was in the process of being wrapped up and closed down, we were unsure of how long we could remain in the Marylebone office and were not even sure whether the charity could continue. 12 months on we have much to celebrate as we hurtle towards Christmas. In the past month alone, we have secured at least one new partner for next year's Playground Partnerships scheme, we have a full calendar of fundraising events planned to take us right up until December 2010 and we have expanded our charitable giving programmes so that even more young people will benefit next year.

Playground Partnerships

Since we launched the 09/10 award scheme in September we have received over 1200 registrations from primary schools so our reduced prize pot has not had an impact on the number of children reached. This is great news for our new sponsors as they will be having a positive impact on many young lives. We talk a lot about putting children at the heart of the process, the best example of this being the Playground Partnerships Scheme. In a new twist to the judging process, children from previous winning schools will make the final decision on where the prize money is allocated. Peer to peer empowerment at its best!

Gigs First

In May 2009 we ran our second live music fundraising event at The Barfly in Camden. We are transforming the Gigs First event into a fully-fledged programme for school children, harnessing the power of music and giving it an enterprise flavour. Next year sees the launch of the Gigs First programme designed to enable the development of a Gigs Toolkit for schools and youth organisations can utilise to put on their own music events. In 2011 we are taking it into schools - if you are interested in helping us secure sponsorship for the 2010 gigs or designing the toolkit for the kids, get in touch!

Pedigree Books

Pedigree Books are famous for many things such as the popular Christmas Annuals that lots of children will receive over the festive period. Last month we met with their Chief Executive Jerry Reynolds to update him on our plans for 2010. We are delighted to announce that Jerry has agreed that Pedigree Books will sponsor the 'Positive Citizenship' category of the 2009 Playground Partnerships award. Pedigree Books is very much a family business and their values are a fantastic match for those of Kids First. We look forward to developing our relationship with Jerry and his team in the coming months and would like to publically thank him for his generous support.

Volunteering Programme

During 2009 we have recruited a number of fantastic volunteers to undertake some aspects of our charity's work. Starting with Daniel Himsworth who helped us with our first ever press release and the press campaign for Playground Partnerships, Kath Howlett who helped us coordinate our online presence, Tina Breach who helped us with events admin and the awesome Gosbert Chagula.

Gos is a law graduate with a keen passion to work with and affect the lives of young people. For the past 5 months Gos has been managing the Playground Partnerships scheme and ensuring that the delivery and day to day management runs smoothly. Gos also has an important part to play in the planning process for next year's delivery by ensuring that the many learning's flagged up this year are fed into 2010 to make the scheme even more attractive and effortless for the many schools that apply. Gos will be leaving us in the New Year to take a up a full time paid role with Young Enterprise. We would like to take this opportunity to congratulate Gos on his new role and thank him for his valuable time.

There are many ways in which you could become part of the wider Kids First family - right from where you are now - if you are interested in some of the volunteer roles we have to offer and have some time to donate then please contact us.

Virgin London Marathon 2010

Next year's London Marathon is a special one. As a new sponsor takes over this prestigious race it is also our first marathon without an eager team of Woolies colleagues willing to take on the challenge. Did you know that on average, a golden bond (charity) place in the London marathon earns £2,700 in sponsorship money?

At Kids First, we are lucky enough to have seven runners this year so the fundraising opportunity is immense. Our team is ably captained by Debbie Hoods (Kids First) with Chris Barton from London, Matt Humphreys from Chester, John Finden from Northampton, Nicole Kavanagh from Winnersh, Jon Smith from Stockport and one of our long standing Kids First Hero's Chris Meadows. All of the money raised will support the ongoing activities of the charity. You can support any one of them here.

If you have a ballot place for next year's race and wish to raise money for Kids First we would be delighted to have you on our team so please email Debbie.

Christmas is about letting go of the past; so we can fill our hearts with hope and happiness and I am sure you will agree, there is a lot to be happy about and look forward to.

Happy Christmas from the Kids First team.