Wigan Rotary Club have always accompanied Santa around the streets of Wigan and to supermarkets during December, but due to the Covid virus, regrettably, had to put this on ice. The Club thought hard and long and came up with a contact free way for the children still to be able to tell Santa what was on their Christmas list and were able to ‘Zoom into Santa’. We have been delighted with the success. The comments have been so rewarding.

While Santa was busy with his zoom appointments, we realised we couldn’t just stop there and having previously taken the bold step last Christmas of introducing Mother Christmas to the children, this year we decided she needed to visit our town again and the ‘hide and seek’ virtual game she played on Facebook in December proved great fun for all who joined in and was definitely one for the grown-ups! There were prizes for successful answers and we would like to publicly thank our sponsors, local firms, plus friends who donated prizes so willingly.

The competition was very kindly sponsored by Uncle Joe’s and the winner each day received a prize of a selection bag of Uncle Joe’s sweets. William Santus Ltd. joint Managing Directors, John and Ant Winnard said; “We are delighted to be supporting Wigan Rotary Club’s fundraising campaign.

The pandemic has required us all to find new ways of working and the Zoom calls with Father Christmas have been a great way for people to support Wigan Rotary Club and raise much needed funds to enable them to continue their vital work in the local community. We hope that everyone enjoys the “Find Mother Christmas Competition”.

Rotary President Rosemary Charles said ‘We are very grateful for all the donations we have received, and to those residents who took part in and enjoyed the competition. As well as Uncle Joe’s for their very kind donations of the prizes for each day we also want to thank Tesco, Mrs. Macs and FM Fragrances for additional one off prizes.”

The list of winners is as follows: Susan Morris, Uncle Joes, Nicola Matthews, Uncle Joes, Hayley Jones, Uncle Joes, Vicky Underwood was Fields, Uncle Joes, Ruth Oop North, Uncle Joes, Haley Jones, Tesco Hamper, Ursula Baxter, Uncle Joes, Georgina McDonald, Mrs. Macs, Nicola Counseli, Uncle Joes, VickyUnderwood was Fields, FM Fragrances, Sonia Lomax, Uncle Joes, Carole Aspinall Uncle Joes, and three extra prizes went to Freda Neacy, Tracey Summers and Emma Bambow who all received Uncle Joes.