Charity

The team were extremely busy over the easter period, as over £1,000 worth of Easter Eggs were purchased to donate to a number of West Yorkshire based community groups and charities.

With the cost of living crisis biting families hard, Easter can be a particularly difficult time financially and the All Star Team wanted to make sure as many children as possible woke up to an Easter Egg on Easter Sunday.

Matt and Sid both chose groups in their respective local areas to donate a portion of the Easter Eggs to,

Matt chose groups from the Leeds area and made donations to Epiphany Church Gipton Foodbank and St Richards Church Seacroft Foodbank, whilst Sid’s donations went to organisations in the Pontefract and Wakefield areas, with Featherstone and Sharlston Food Banks distributing his donation to 70 families.

Many heartfelt thanks to each and every one of our players, without whom, donations like this would not be possible!

After receiving a message from a member of the All Star Family, after a post on Facebook asking for suggestions for our next Charitable project, the team got straight to work on making a meaningful, practical donation to Ward J19 at St. James’ Hospital in Leeds.

Ward J19 is a ward that accommodates both Men and Women, over the age of 75 and is a general medicine ward. Some of the patients can sometimes be on the ward for a number of weeks, or even months, and sadly, often come to the Ward with very little in the way of personal possessions.

The team were asked specifically for personal hygiene items, as the patients coming in without them, often would have to go without these daily essentials during their time on the ward.

Both Matt’s and Liam turned All Star HQ into a makeshift hamper factory and were busy emptying the shelves of shops all over Leeds, buying deoderants, hair brushes, combs, bathing sponges, shower gels, toothbrushes, toothpastes and much more…after the third or fourth visit to a certain B&M store, extra staff has been drafted in to re-stock the now bare shelves 😂

The team delivered almost a hundred personal hygiene hampers on 7th May 2024 and the ward staff were very grateful for the kind donation, made possible by the All Star Family.

On Friday 11th May, the All Star team went down to Pinderfields Hospital to deliver the iPads that were purchased after the iPad Charity Draw.

In total,  7 iPads were donated to two Children’s Wards, Ward 46 (Children’s Inpatient Ward) and Ward 46B (Children’s Burns Unit).

The team met with Jo and Dawn, who are the Wards’ Play Co-ordinators. These two diamonds are responsible for keeping the children entertained whilst they are on the ward, and naturally, they said tech is always a great way to keep the kids occupied! After the recent theft of one of the X-Boxes on the ward, the ladies told the team that it was becoming more and more difficult to get all the kids a fair amount of time each with the devices, so these 7 iPads were heaven sent!

After a lot of chit-chatting, the Boys also learned that the Ward often struggled to keep the iPads in working order, as unfortunately they would be broken easily with accidental drops and bangs. As a further gesture of good-will Matt and Sid purchased a durable, drop-proof cover for each iPad, ensuring they would last as long as possible and help the many hundreds of children that would call the Ward home at some point.

Ward 46B in particular held a special place in Matt’s heart, as this was where his son Harrison, was treated after an accident in 2019. The ward staff were pleased to see Matt, some even recognising him from both his time spent on the ward, and others, naturally, as members of the All Star Family! Matt expressed his personal gratitude for all they did for Harrison and his Family during their time in the Burns Unit.

The team are looking forward to working with the Children’s Wards at Pinderfields Hospital in the future.

The community within All Star Prizes raised £900 – we then rounded that donation up to £2,000 in total.

In May we worked again with Ward 31 Children’s Oncology at Leeds General Infirmary to donate 6 x Nintendo Switch OLED’s & games.