Knitted chicks come home to roost

Kind-hearted knitters from across the region have been sending in their little woolly chicks, lovingly hand-created for our Easter appeal.

Deliveries by the sack load have been arriving thick and fast for the March 25 deadline to allow time for sorting, counting and filling with a crème egg ready for delivery to local schools in advance of Easter.

Since its beginning almost two decades ago, the knitted chick appeal has grown into one of our most popular fundraising events, with word of the big knit reaching knitters from across the globe.

Hundreds of children, organisations and members of the public get involved by knitting, setting up egg collecting points, selling chicks at work and delivering orders to schools, groups and other venues.

Every chick needs an egg

For every chick a crème egg is needed to fill it, and donations of eggs from businesses and supporters pour into the hospice from the start of the year.

Among them Co-op store managers Richard Nutt from Knutsford and Paul Glover from Heaton Moor along with colleague Linda Duffy, hand delivered 1,080 creme eggs collected by 17 stores from across the region.

Staff from Barclays Financial Assistance based at Piccadilly Place, Manchester, spent a day stuffing chicks with crème eggs. After passing quality control and checking that each chick could securely hold an egg, the team of ten boxed them up into orders of 100 ready for sale for £1 each.

Last year’s appeal raised £50,000 helping towards the £12,800 a day hospice running costs.