Children throughout Torbay have been invited to design a very special Christmas card. The winning designs will be used by local charity, Torbay Holiday Helpers Network, next year.
THHN provides free fun filled holidays for families who have seriously ill children, families who are bereaved; having lost a child or parent and families who have a terminally ill parent . Set up just over five years ago by Luke Tillen, the charity now works with scores of local accommodation providers, businesses, attractions and groups to provide very special holidays for very special families who are having an unbelievably difficult time.
Roger Matthews and Rebecca Davies, part of the THHN team, decided that it would be nice to involve local children and primary schools in a project to help design a Christmas card for them to use next year. Children in Reception to Year 6 are being encouraged to come up with a design that they think represents Torbay. THHN Founder and Chairman, Luke Tillen, said “We’re really excited about getting local children involved in this project. Over the past five years many of the local schools have done fundraising for us or got involved in some of our events and the children are always so supportive. They really seem to appreciate how lucky they are when they hear about the children in the families that we provide holidays for. Their generosity of spirit never ceases to amaze me.” He added “We’re very much looking forward to seeing what designs they come up with and quite what they think represents Torbay.”
The charity has once again teamed up with one of their biggest supporters, Babbacombe Model Village. Everyone who enters will be in with a chance to win a trip to the Model Village for their entire class and the child who creates the winning design from their year group will also get to take their class for a fantastic visit to see the little folk of Babbacombe and receive a visit from THHN Memory Maker Man. From the six finalists, three winners will be chosen and their design will go into production for use as next year’s THHN Christmas cards. The three winners will also win some ToysRUs vouchers, courtesy of Teddy Mountain.
Simon Wills, General Manager of Babbacombe Model Village, said “We’re always very happy to support THHN and the work that they do. Over the past five years, Luke and the team at THHN have provided hundreds of free holidays to families who are having a really tough time. We have been privileged to have many of those families visit us at the Model Village and providing some prizes for the Christmas Card competition is our absolute pleasure.”
Letters and information about this exciting competition have been sent to headteachers at all the local primary schools and if your child’s school is not getting involved but your child would like to take part please just e-mail who will get all info over to you. In the meantime, team THHN are looking forward to seeing the designs flood in.
For any school who has not received information about this competition but would like to get involved please also e-mail