News > Goals supporting Cyrenians

Christmas Day was enjoyed by all volunteers and guests who were entertained by our amazing singer Ian Davies & willing volunteers, plus Bingo with prizes! Here is some feedback from a few of our guests:

“The best part of the day was the systematic arrangement of food & the many freebies to people which showed all the love”

“It was very nicely done this year, thank you for the welcoming environment, it was lovely, 10/10 for volunteer Judith on table 4”

“The atmosphere was intoxicating, you make people very happy, I am so grateful”

“The best part of day was our lovely volunteer Rachael & I really loved going away with a new pillow”

“The smiles on peoples faces was beautiful, 100% spot on”.

“I enjoyed the food and the fun & laughter, thank you to all involved”

“Music was great, I enjoyed the day as I live on my own”

“All the volunteers are Angels – don’t go back to Heaven for 100 years!”

“it’s good to see people go out of their way and give up their time for others, but it’s not like that at times, it was a nice change to see”

“Mia & Matt were very helpful, excellent Christmas Dinner”

PHOTOS TAKEN BY ATUL PATEL PHOTOGRAPHY & THE FOLLOWING NARRATIVE PROVIDED BY MATT CATTELL:

So 2024 was my 9th year of volunteering and it was a pleasure to be the lead coordinator for the annual Cyrenians Christmas Day Event which was once again held at our usual venue of Methodist Central Hall in Warwick Lane, Coventry. 

This year we really expected that demand would be higher so we prepared accordingly with more food and donations prepared.

The day was very hard work due to rising numbers attending but it was still a huge success, with 182 guests in attendance and with 40 of our amazing volunteers too. 

We managed to provide 250 hot meals including 42 takeaways and we gave out over 150 goodie bags and huge amounts of gifts, food and clothes from our fantastic donation room.

Once again a massive thank you our amazing head chef Sue for all of her hard work in the kitchen and to Jane, Kate and Peter who worked so hard in the kitchen too. I’d like to thank all of the volunteers and entertainers who all worked so hard and efficiently to make it a special day for everyone. A big thank you everyone who once again helped to decorate the stage and rooms with wonderful Christmas decorations, trees and lights,

it looked even better this year. 

Thank you also to Ade, Zoey and Jason from the Methodist Central Hall for their support and kindness a huge thank you to everyone who donated food, gifts and money donations and a massive thank you to Jo Page, Christmas Project Manager,for all of her hard work leading up to the day.

Jo and I look forward to planning the 2025 Christmas event, we are going to look at how we can deal with the rising numbers of people who are now attending and how we can improve the experience for our guests and for our volunteers on such a special day for everyone. 

Lots More photos from the day can be viewed on our Charity Facebook Page

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