Community is incredibly important to us and our shops have always been a gateway into these communities. The families we support live throughout the country and Tŷ Hafan has been lucky enough to feel so at home throughout south and west Wales. Supporting Tŷ Hafan shops dates back to before the hospice opened and collectively, they have raised over £2.5m since 2000, contributing to providing comfort, support and expert care to the families in Wales that need them.
Christmas has given our shops the opportunity to put much of the difficulties of the last year behind them, at least for the moment. While we’ve had to cease trading in a few areas, we were delighted to be able to return to Pontypridd, home of the first of their shops to open, Bridgend and Tenby to say thank you and give a proper goodbye to those communities, with our exciting Christmas themed pop-up shops.
The shop window competition was harder fought than ever with staff and volunteers truly getting into the spirit of the season, producing a number of wonderfully festive displays.
CEO Maria Timon Samra judged the competition and was delighted at the “challenging task” of choosing a winner amongst “the creative and festive spirit really evident in all of [the] entries”.
After much mulling over, congratulations must go to the worthy winner, our Cowbridge store, commended for its clearly acknowledged connections with the local community by representing the Mari Lwyd festival, and the spirit of Christmas with the beautiful crib scene. Congratulations, too, to Porthcawl who came second and Newport for coming third.
Cowbridge Deputy Shop Manager Gemma, who painstakingly planned and built the window (including the Mari Lwyd horse skull in her own time and spending hours crouched in the window space drawing the silhouettes of Cowbridge buildings) said:
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