One of the hard-working supporters of St Leonard's Hospice, in York, wants to say a big thank you to the shops, businesses and residents of Stamford Bridge.

Maureen Pearson has recently handed in over £550 for our Hospice 2000 Appeal, raised locally from the sale of Christmas floral brooches over the festive period.

Maureen has lived in Stamford Bridge for 18 years and has been involved with the hospice for nine years, as a volunteer in the day hospice and helping with fundraising.

She asked businesses and organisations if they would display and sell boxes of the Christmas poinsettias and horns formed into brooches at £1 each for the Hospice 2000 Appeal, and was delighted with the amount raised.

Maureen said: "When I was a volunteer in the day hospice and helping with the flowers I could see what the patients got out of the hospice and how appreciative they are.

"The appeal is an exciting development and will help so many. I am delighted that the people of Stamford Bridge have helped it to get a bit further along."

Although based in York, the hospice covers an area extending to Tadcaster to the west, Sherburn-in-Elmet and Selby to the south, Pocklington and Stamford Bridge to the east and Easingwold and Thirsk to the north.

Fundraising manager Janet Morley said: "Our volunteers come from a wide area. Many of them are not only good at supporting the hospice, but also good at encouraging others to do so as well. We are very grateful to everyone who helped us raised this super amount."

If your community, village or business would like to celebrate this special year and help the Hospice 2000 Appeal, call the Let's Party Hotline on 0800 5286312 for an information pack, or call the St Leonard's Hospice Fundraising Centre on York 781576 for further details.

Check out the Evening Press Internet site at www.thisisyork.co.uk for the latest on the appeal and much more.

Your Christmas gift to hospice

Ever wondered what to do with those unwanted Christmas presents?

Dozens of people found the answer when they took them to the Monks Cross Shopping Park, where they were collected to help our Hospice 2000 Appeal following an appeal in the Evening Press.

Shopping centre co-ordinator Jenny Hare said they received well over 100 presents, which were mostly of good quality and could be used as raffle prizes if required.

The centre is a corporate patron of St Leonard's Hospice and will keep up its support until the end of the hospice Millennium Appeal. "We think it's a very worthwhile cause," added Jenny.

She added the presents brought to Monks Cross included a lot of "smellies" in presentation packs, and also items like a set of kitchen knives.

Enterprising students are really the business

Students showed plenty of enterprise when they put their teaching to good use by raising funds for our Hospice 2000 Appeal.

Last September, eight mature students from York College set up The Enterprise Company to make and market Christmas decorations and cards for fellow students.

Running the company gave them an insight into the business world and helped them understand the roles of people in a business organisation, what the working environment was like and how to cope with the income and outgoings of a business.

They held a sale of their cards and decorations to fellow students in mid-December, which was a great success, and the students decided that they would give the profits of £56.70 to the Hospice Appeal.

Those involved in the project were Michael Scott, who acted as managing director of The Enterprise Company; Chris Turner, sales director; Angela Delaney, personnel director; Anthony Pollin, financial director; Haley Webb, production director; and Richard Smith, Dominic Huckin and Nina Thackrah, who were sales and production staff.

Enterprise tutor at the college, Bridget Lowery, said: "The students all worked very hard at setting up the company and making it a success. It has really helped them to understand how a business works, and everyone is delighted that we have a profit that we can give to the Hospice Millennium Appeal."

Janet Morley, fundraising organiser at the hospice, said: "It's wonderful when such initiative and enterprise result in both a valuable educational experience and a very welcome boost for our Millennium Appeal.

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.