Community champion Denise sprinkles some festive magic on YMCA Christmas party

Emma Rhymes and the tireless team at Birmingham YMCA do so much to help local young people all year-round – so when they contacted our Minworth store's community champion Denise Alder to see if she could donate a BBQ to them she pulled out all the stops to sprinkle some extra festive magic this Christmas.

After delivering the BBQ, Denise secured a grant from the Asda Foundation to pay for a Christmas party and then surprised the team by delivering a new fridge-freezer stocked with enough food to cover the festive period.

Emma, who's based at the Erdington Centre, says the help from Asda has been fantastic.

She said: "To get the grant for our Christmas party was just brilliant. It would not have been possible without the help from Asda and particularly Denise.

"And then to be told that we would be getting and new fridge-freezer filled with food too was amazing!"

The free Christmas buffet, which was prepared at the on-site kitchen, was open to all members of the local community.

Emma said: "It was a fantastic party, and it went really well. We had such a good mixture from the community attending and they loved the food. We had takeaway boxes too so people could take some home with them."

Emma says the fridge-freezer will be invaluable in storing produce which will then be given to people

She said: "It will be so useful, as it's something that we didn't think we would get funding for. Asda filled it full of homemade food such as lasagne which was great.

"The support we have had from Asda has been brilliant and Denise was so good on the day of the party, helping to set up and clean up. It was so nice of her."

Denise said: "After we gave the YMCA a donation for their BBQ I asked about what they were doing for Christmas. I then applied for a grant to the Asda Foundation and they were able to help – and the YMCA were delighted. And then to be able to donate a much-needed fridge-freezer too was a lovely surprise."