Laurence Menswear Donates £1,000 to Chiltern Centre from Christmas Festival Fundraiser

Laurence Menswear presented a cheque for £1,000 to the Chiltern Centre last Thursday. The Duke Street shop raised the money from donations made to their mince pie and mulled wine stand at the Christmas Festival last November.

Laurence Morris, owner of Laurence Menswear, has been supporting the Chiltern Centre since his shop first opened nearly 11 years ago. He said, “It’s great to support a local charity. The Chiltern Centre always seems to be out there, they do great things for the community and it’s a great cause to support.”

Every year, at the Christmas Festival, Laurence Menswear runs a stand outside the shop front offering mulled wine and mince pies in exchange for charitable donations. The beneficiary charity changes, but has been the Chiltern Centre for the past two years. The mince pies were provided by Lawlor’s. Laurence said, “We raised just under £700 on the night, and leading up to Christmas we brought the figure up to £1000. It seemed a nice round figure.”

Harriet Barcella, Marketing & Communications Manager for the Chiltern Centre, said, “We have to raise £200,000 a year in order to keep our doors open, and we can only do it because of the community support we get. People like Laurence who continue to support make a massive difference. It means we can open our doors and keep going out and doing all the amazing things we do – we can take the young people to do hydrotherapy or go to a trip to the farm or whatever it is that they want to do really. It’s amazing.”

Emma Lerche-Thomsen, Fundraising Consultant for the Chiltern Centre, said, “I think Laurence is the most fantastic supporter because he does it every year! He never gives up, he’s always there in the cold selling mince pies and what have you. I think it’s fantastic, so thank you. And not only that, he always gives to our charity raffles and silent auctions for our events. We love him very much.”