Imagine you are this person.
It’s Friday night. Your working week has been long.
You can’t remember the last time you got dressed up.
You’re going out-out and to heck with Saturday’s sore head.
You arrive and it’s even better than you could have imagined.
The Help For Kids Christmas Party at the Invercarse Hotel greets you with snow at the entrance.
It looks like snow, it feels like snow swirling in the wind (it’s actually a clever machine) and you pose with pals before you make your entrance.
You donate the gifts for children living in deprivation in Dundee into a giant Santa’s grotto.
And not only do you feel a sense of achievement in getting into your Spanx pants/dress trousers, a warm glow has spread through you – aided by the marmalade gin infused fizz handed to you on arrival – knowing you are part of something that’s making a difference.
Then there’s turkey and trimmings with mince pies, followed by brilliant music that gets you cutting shapes on the dancefloor – inhibitions loosened by the party feel and flowing drinks.
And at this moment you’re asked to sit down and listen to a woman to present the auction, asking guests to bid on holidays and experiences to raise cash for Help For Kids.
Imagine being that person – a room full of 200 people who are watching the peak of their night out, cut off in their prime, to be quiet and listen to a woman who forgot to put fake tan on her legs.
That woman was me.
Help For Kids has raised £1m over a decade
The lights did not come up as I walked across the dancefloor.
No one stopped talking. Laughter was everywhere.
You know those dreams when you’re naked in front of a room of people?
The louder I talked and asked for quiet, the more I sounded like me at home nagging the kids.
I spotted my husband’s look of something approaching pity as I tried to calm the crowd.
A frazzled, shouty mum – he needn’t have left the house to witness that.
But then someone remembered to put on the lights and people realised I was there.
They listened to the story of Help For Kids – the charity that’s raised £1 million over ten years.
As soon as the pennies come in through fundraising events like this, they go out through referrals with physical things bought for kids in real need in Dundee.
From warm coats, to specialised beds for special needs; to the almost 2,000 Santa bags made up with presents targeted to their wants.
Some children would otherwise not wake up to a present – any present – on Christmas Day.
And we were off – hands raised – not least by the likes of fervent supporters like mechanic Gary Rooney who raised £14,000 through his Bangers to Benidorm extravaganza.
I was hoarse by the end – the crowd had given their all and now wanted me to shut up and party once more.
What a night. Look out for it next year.
Look out too through Help For Kid’s Facebook page for donation points where you can give new toys.
The collective difference made by those who can, no matter how small, will be huge in Dundee.
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