Christmas jumper celebration raises £750 for Grove Cottage

Mayor of Bishop's Stortford Cllr Colin Woodward found a host of festive fans when he organised a Christmas jumper event for the town's Grove Cottage.

Students at Hillmead Primary School, Woburn Avenue, and staff at Handelsbanken in Sworders Court, Care by Us in Southmill Road and the Royal Mail sorting office in South Street all supported his initiative for the home of Mencap in London Road and Harlow College.

Together it is estimated they raised around £750 for the centre which provides social and educational activities for people of all ages with learning disabilities. Members of Grove Cottage’s ‘Big Play’ club also took part in the event and raised £8.

The town’s civic leader had a tricky job picking his favourite pullovers from the woollen wonders on display.

He said: “Whole team engagement at Care By Us made choosing difficult, but we had a lot of laughter and the owners kindly agreed to double the funds raised by staff who really entered into the spirit.

“Hillmead were all impressive, so I had to fine myself and add to their heavy school bucket collection as I decided they were all way better than my effort.

“We were particularly impressed with the sorting office getting so involved at such a busy time of year and more so when being told that all sorting has to revert to hand as postcode national machines can only use red ink franking and that won’t work at Christmas due to the high volume of red Christmas card envelopes.”

Fundraising manager for Grove Cottage Rosie Wren said: “We are ecstatic by the amount of people who joined in with the Jumper Day and would like to thank everyone who got involved. We would also like to thank Colin for organising such a wonderful day, it was great fun to see everyone dressed up! All of the money raised from this event will help Grove Cottage to continue to provide vital social and educational activities for people of all ages with a learning disability.”