The JEllie Foundation unveils a charitable take on the traditional advent calendar today.
Between now and Christmas Eve, the charity will donate £1,000 a day to north-east children’s charities and projects. The Christmas Eve donation will be £5,000. The campaign is called #JEllieJoy.
The JEllie Foundation raises money for local charities through events such as the Signature Food Festival at The Chester Hotel. The JEllie Foundation trustees are hotel owners Gillian and Graham Wood.
Each day in December, a window on The Chester Hotel advent calendar will be opened to reveal a traditional advent calendar image, including toy trains, angels, nutcrackers, gingerbread men and Christmas stockings. A video of staff from the Chester Hotel will then ‘reveal’ the day’s charity recipient using that advent calendar prop.
The daily charity will be revealed at mid-day each day in a video on Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn.
Graham Wood says, “Christmas should be all about children and giving. Our family established The JEllie Foundation in order to give to local children’s and young people’s charities, which we do throughout the year. This year, as The Chester Hotel completes its fifth year of Signature Food Festival events, we thought it would be fun to involve the whole team in distributing the money raised at the events which they work so hard to deliver.
“We have drawn up a list of Aberdeen City and Shire charities which focus on children, or which have specific projects for young people, and we hope everyone will enjoy our daily ‘reveal’ on social media.”
The Chester Hotel events raised more than £800,000 between 2017 and 2021, with the final total from the Signature Food Festival 2022 expected soon - making a seven figure total.
In previous years donations to local charities via The JEllie Foundation have included £100k to Friends of the Aberdeen Neo Natal Unit to fund giraffe incubators and £60k to The Archie Foundation for specialist pain training for neo natal nurses. The foundation has also donated to SensationALL which works with neurodiverse children and Autism Understanding Scotland which supports autistic people and children, regardless of age gender and level of need.
Gillian Wood says, “The Chester Hotel team, from each department, has had fun dreaming up and filming the 24 mini stunt ‘reveals’ with a traditional advent calendar theme. Our whole team is committed to giving back to our local community and this is a fun, festive way to do it.”