Blake Morgan Oxford office elves spread Christmas cheer

Blake Morgan’s Oxford office, with the help of local businesses, donated gifts to a Secret Santa scheme for disadvantaged children. The law firm worked in collaboration with Oxfordshire Social Services and Children Heard and Seen (CHAS), a charity providing support to children affected by parental imprisonment, to provide 519 children a Christmas present who may not otherwise have received one.

Special thanks go to the participating businesses and Blake Morgan employees who were all incredibly generous and gifted presents, and to Sam Hardy and Sara Brown who were chief elves and organised the scheme this year.

Children were asked what they would like from Santa, participants were then given a list of the personalised gift requests to select a gift from. Sam and Sara sorted the gifts, checked their lists twice and liaised with Oxfordshire Social Services and CHAS to collect the gifts. The presents ranged from lego, toiletries and books, to high chairs for very young children put forward by social services.

CHAS held a socially distanced party on Saturday 18 December where Santa handed out the gifts to the children, and Oxfordshire Social Services visited houses to distribute the gifts.

Sam and Sara would like to express their extreme gratitude to all who took part this year, especially after what has been a very difficult couple of years personally and financially for everyone. It really makes such a big difference to each child involved, and they hope that the scheme will be even bigger and better next year.

Thank you to everyone who donated and helped organise the Secret Santa scheme, including:

• St Anne’s College, Oxford
• Paul Basham Associates
• Jessop & Cook
• Oxford Brookes University
• HHT Solutions’ directors Debbie and Richard Freeth
• Benfield & Loxley
• Oxford Health NHS Foundation Trust
• Ultima Education
• Satellite Applications Catapult
• Cazenove Capital
• Glanville Group
• Oxford University Press
• ETL
• AECOM
• The Oxford University Administration Team
• Nuffield Department of Surgical Sciences, Oxford