That time of year has quickly come around once again, Christmas is just a short week away and 2021 will soon be drawing to a close. As many of you will agree, this year has flown by and has been another difficult and challenging one, but with that there has also been so much for us to celebrate.
Just like last year, we have decided to put our thanks into donations rather than into Christmas cards since we strive to be a sustainable business. One of the ways we do this is reducing our impact on the environment by being an (almost) paper-free company – our certified translations require paper copies. Therefore, this year we have donated £150 to a local charity, Spirit of Christmas, and we have also grown our Forest of Thanks by another 500 trees! This would not have been possible without our wonderful clients, the amazing translators who work alongside us, and our fabulous supporters, and so we would like to say a massive thank you to you all.
Spirit of Christmas
Spirit of Christmas is a charity based in Selby that started in 2009 when the owners, Ronnie and Diane, held events to raise money for various other charities. This evolved into setting up their own charity in 2013 in order to help underprivileged families at Christmas time. They work with the York Youth Offending Services to host Christmas parties for around 480 children each year, and over the past 2 years they have provided a local primary school with 120 toys to give out to the children. In 2019, the Elf Project began. This has developed into a Christmas Toy Bank (set up much like a traditional toy shop) where families can go to select and wrap presents for their children for free – this year, this event will cater for 150 families.
They also launched the Banana Box Toy Project in March 2020:
Our Banana Box Toy Project came into being as we were getting requests from people asking if we could give some toys to a family who had moved into their street. The families were from marriage break ups or victims of domestic violence. Diane would pick up a banana box from Morrison’s supermarket and fill it with toys to deliver to the families concerned.
Ronnie, Spirit of Christmas Trustee
Ronnie and Diane have all of these events lined up for 2022 where they are hoping to provide for up to 2,000 children. If you are local, they are always looking for donations of good quality toys (especially since 40% of pre-loved toys that are donated end up being dumped as they are broken). If donating isn’t something you’re able to do, please support them by liking and sharing their social media pages.
Our Forest
Our annual mini forest (of 500 trees!) is being planted in Madagascar as part of the Mangrove restoration project in Marotaola. In recent years, vast areas of Madagascar’s original forests have been destroyed, displacing entire animal species and diminishing local people’s ability to farm and live on the land. Through this project, run by the Eden Reforestation Projects, local people have been hired to grow, plant and guard the trees planted to maturity. Therefore, it is not only restoring the forest ecosystems, but also providing a positive impact on the local community.
To read more about the project and look at photos, click here.
2021 at LEaF Translations
This year has been yet another fantastic year for LEaF. We have achieved so much and there are many moments for us to be proud of as a business. In February we joined the Good Business Charter, in April we incorporated, and then we joined the SME Climate Hub, all whilst planting trees in our Ecologi forest, and providing our translation services. We have delivered website translations, Amazon listings, and keyword research in so many languages (ranging from Swedish to Japanese) to lots of great clients – from digital marketing agencies, to hotels and ethical cosmetics brands.
All of this (our hard work, combined with that of our wonderful translators, and our fabulous clients) has enabled us to take our forest total to a massive 1,400 trees and to donate to a wonderful local charity. Part of our mission is to create a positive impact on our environment and the community around us, our core values include sustainability and building a business to do good. The treeplanting and Christmas donations are a key part of this and we wouldn’t be able to do it without you.
Thank you for helping us to increase our positive impact in 2021.
We look forward to doing even more good in 2022 and we hope that you will join us on our journey.
