What another fantastic day on tour! First stop Access Self Storage in Twickenham where we visited the lovely playroom on the Starlight ward at West Middlesex Hospital!  

With bunny and store manager Stuart Hillman in tow, the hero team met some lovely children who were more than keen to leap all over the bunny and receive some lovely presents from him.  

We were also treated to a tour of the entire children’s ward by head matron so were able to see how much the children on the ward will appreciate the donated toys. It’s really means a lot to us to see their little faces light up!

 

Next stop....Access Self Storage in Mitcham where we picked up store manager, Carlos Sousa then on to St Helier Hospital where we met communications officer- Claire Proudlock who took us to the main playroom to meet little Mark who had to stay on the ward for two weeks.   

He was very excited to see the Easter bunny and said he thought he was “very cool”. After lots of handshakes and photos, we then met a little girl who had been doing head stands on the trampoline and managed to break her arm! It didn’t seem to faze her though and after a lot of persuading, her and mum had their photo taken with bunny!





Another successful day. Last stop Manchester where we’ll be meeting the Children’s Farm Trust with the Messenger Group who have been following our appeal for the last few weeks.




Watch this space!”

And our winner is…

…after much deliberation over which of our fantastic store teams should get the Access Self Storage Blue Peter badge, a decision has been made.


Did we go for Access Harrow, where a donation of 180 gowns from local Stag Lane Primary School was covered in the local Harrow Observer newspaper? Or Access Self Storage Southampton, who had 367 gowns dropped off by a school who we desperately tried to trace so we could let Blue Peter know who they were? Was it Access Kingston where 400 gowns from Grand Avenue Primary were donated?

Whilst all of these stores accepted some impressively large donations from local schools, and all of our stores entered into the Send-a-Smile appeal with gusto, we have decided that the Blue Peter badge should live at our Wandsworth store, where all of the appeal gowns have been stored. Manager Alison Clark and her team have supported the appeal enthusiastically throughout the campaign, from being a drop off point, acting as the central storage location, hosting Blue Peter presenters and children from local schools during filming, to stepping in with cardboard boxes to pack-up gowns when Operation Smile were let down by their suppler – nothing has been too much trouble for Al and her team.

And don’t the team look chuffed with Al wearing the badge in the picture above?

Enjoy guys – you deserve it!

Blue Peter ‘Send-a-Smile’ appeal announcement

Yesterday the Blue Peter team announced the results of their 2009/10 ‘Send-a-Smile’ appeal, in support of Operation Smile. The initial target of 20,000 gowns was well and truly smashed, with over 92,000 gowns collected!

The saving this equates to for Operation Smile means an additional 1,800 children can be given life changing surgery.

Blue Peter have tagged this appeal as their most successful campaign ever! All 54 Access Self Storage stores were drop off points for the appeal, allowing every child in the UK to easily access a local donation site. Our flagship Wandsworth store has also been home to ALL the gowns which have been donated, prior to them being sent overseas for use. The first storage unit donated to Operation Smile quickly became full, so another 200 sq ft of space was made available to the organisation.

The whole Access Self Storage team has been delighted to do a little to help a wonderful charity in this amazing appeal. We hope to be able to build on the relationships developed with Operation Smile and Blue Peter and look forward to being able to support them in the future.