Do it - do it do it again with LOVE

Love, peace and good will towards all men.....

(AND WOMEN)

I don't think so ! Do you ?

Christmas starts now some time in October when retailers attempt to upstage one another as they extract money from your pockets.  It is also the time when "charities" do the same.

Last week I walked down a local high street and saw the way the "charity" shops were trying to get money from shoppers. Each trying to out do the others and all trying to out do the traditional high street shops.

Such shops are not charities as I understand the word, they are commercial operations. If you spend £1 in such a shop please do not think that £1 will do directly to the people you want to support. NO. There is one particular national chain where just 19p in every £1 spent over the counter actually helps those you are seeking to support.

TIME TO DO IT AGAIN - TO DO IT AGAIN WITH LOVE.

In a commercial charity I question if there is actually any room for love. These are business operations.

What is The Sunshine Smile Crew doing this Christmas - DOING WITH LOVE.

Now in our THIRD year of operation we have SECRET SANTA where we are taking gifts to children who will be sick, seriously

ill, in hospital over Christmas. Gifts of love for Santa's Sleigh are  now coming in EVERY day.

On 20th December we will be taking the gifts to Ronald McDonald House attached to Birmingham Hospital. Children with serious illnesses come from all over the country to Birmingham for specialist treatment, indeed some air

air lifted from Europe.

It is very hard to have a child sick in hospital at any time. It is harder when that time is at Christmas. When that hospital is far away from home, perhaps even in another country, the hardship for families is beyond words. Ronald McDonald House puts loving arms around the

families, gives free accommodation and an abundance of love to those families.

Every gift of love you make will be given in love to a family in Ronald McDonald House Birmingham.

I will pay the cost of the fuel for delivering the gifts, indeed I am combining delivery with a family visit. DO NOT think that Ronald McDonald is a commercial charity - it is NOT.  EVERY penny given to Ronald McDonald is used in love with families. Over Christmas there will be 64 families in Ronald McDonald House Birmingham.

YES, there has been recent a TV advert running for Ronald McDonald House but not a penny given to the charity funded that. It was donated in love by McDonald's Restaurants.

Ronald McDonald House doing it in LOVE.

On Christmas Day my radio show will have tracks dedicated to specific families in Ronald McDonald House Birmingham and indeed to every family in the 365 houses in 64 different countries of the world.

The radio show on Christmas Eve will be celebrating the love and work of The Food Bank.

In the New Year we will have a special project for The Food Bank, we are planning this right now. From now until Christmas I am taking some fresh food to one specific local outlet

for The Food Bank. I am having a bit of fun using the goals Sheffield Wednesday score to inspire this sponsorship. The Geriatric DJ, of course, is a firm Sheffield Wednesday fan !

Which football team do you support ? Would you like to add something to this Friday Love on behalf of the goals your team score ?   Turn the goals the team score to secure their position in the league into goals of love for The Food Bank.

DO IT DO IT AGAIN WITH LOVE

I am going to play a football anthem now. Sheffield Wednesday has not one but two anthems !  The most famous football anthem is of course Liverpool's YOU'LL NEVER WALK ALONE. I am going to play that but the Black Lace version. 

Before Gerry And The Pacemakers Black Lace sing Rod Stewart's Sailing:

We are all sailing along on life's ocean. The sea is

calm and the sun is shining. Life is good. But when the storms come, when the waves crash against the boat and there is a danger of sinking it is then we need friends who will put arms around us and say: Do not worry, I am here - you'll never walk alone.

Walk on.......

Walking. That brings me to talk about DREAMSAI and its walk of love.

Dreamsai does not need money or support in what we consider traditional forms. Dreamsai is LOVE - that's all it is. To increase its work it needs more people to bring in their love.

At Food For Sai on Saturday lunchtime Sunshine Smile Crew member Julie has established herself as Queen of The Kettle making tea and coffee for

guests. My role is to play music and talk with guests. I have a bad ear infection, am temporarily deaf on my right side so I was a bit off form yesterday.

Will you come to Dreamsai on the odd Saturday. Bring the greatest gift you can possibly give ? The gift of love.

Boxing Day on the radio with The Geriatric DJ will do a few things. I want to celebrate the love of Dreamsai and to find more people who will bring their love. I want to thank those who worked over Christmas - our emergency services and all who were on duty at

every level in our NHS.

Then on Friday 27th December I will be banning all Christmas music until the end of 2020 !

OK it's still November but before I ban Christmas music for the year let's have a bit of fun.

New Year's Day 2020............

My New Year radio show has a very special guest - PIGGIE ALFIE.

I am not sure that Alfie will be joining me in person but CURLY TAILS PIG RESCUE will be joining me for a totally non-Christmas show CARNIVAL OF THE ANIMALS.  Let's have a track from the playlist shall we.....

Ronald McDonals House - The Food Bank - Dreamsai - Curly Tails......

Every single operation has LOVE at its centre. Everything you give to any of these lovely organisations goes DIRECTLY to those you are seeking to support.  Each one IS doing it DOING IT WITH LOVE.

Please do not look at our website for the next few days. I am frantically trying to put in some major updates but before then I have to

write 25 YouTube videos. One for every day of Advent 2019.  This will be the third YouTube musical advent calendar we have run. Every day the advent video will celebrate the work of these loving organisation and every day the video will invite those watching it to  go out into the world and make others smile.  PLEASE invest your love and your smiles into these Sunshine Smile Crew Projects. Every smile, every gift will send love direct to someone who needs to smile and someone who needs your love.

Let your love flow.........