300 designs from which to choose there should be something to suit everyone

Each year, we sell hundreds of Christmas cards for charities, through the Cards for Good Causes shop in the Church. At least 75p in the pound goes to the charities - far more than most retailers' charity cards.

The shop was formally opened by Father Stephen Stavrou on Saturday November 7th, with some jazz and rock music from Son of Father, guitar duo Jago and Brent Furnas.

It is open from Monday to Saturday, from 11am to 5pm every day except Wednesday when, because of the lunchtime Mass, it opens at 1pm. This season’s trading will end on Friday December 18th.

There will also be Advent calendars, a range of gifts and stocking-fillers, and everything you need to wrap your parcels. Please bring your own shopping bag - as part of our Green Christmas campaign, supported by St Michael's and Cards for Good Causes, we are encouraging recycling and the use of fewer plastic bags!

The shop is managed by Anne Mower and Gill Stevens and staffed by volunteers from the church. It was opened in 2008 by the award-winning painter Alfred Daniels, who painted the poster for that year's Bedford Park Summer Exhibition. (Alfred is seen here with former St Michael's curate, Mother Katherine Hedderly, Gill and Anne).

Last year, the recession meant difficult trading conditions all round. Cards for Good Causes took £6.88 million overall, a reduction of 7.3%, in 383 outlets. This year the return to every charity will be a minimum of 75%. This is excellent value to the charities taking part - high street shops generally only return about 4% on their charity card sales. The profits from the sale of Christmas goods fund the administration of CFGC so the more goods sold the more can be passed on to the charities.

In 2008 Macmillan Cancer Support sold the most cards, and for the first time RNLI came second and NSPCC third. The St Michael's shop will stock cards for 34 national charities. Age Concern and Help the Aged are merging but have not yet decided on a new name and CARE has become Self Unlimited. Our local charities will be Epilepsy Research UK, St Michael and All Angels Church, and Hammersmith Hospital Kidney Association. The Hammersmith now has one of, if not the, largest dialysis units in the UK.

With around 300 different designs from which to choose there should be something to suit everyone.
Further details can be found at http://www.smaaa.org.uk/worship/CardsforGoodCauses.html

November 12, 2009