The GK Experience is Scottish charity working to improve the wellbeing of disadvantaged and vulnerable young people in Glasgow and the West of Scotland. We were delighted to work with The GK Experience for the second year running and throw a Christmas party for the kids.
For us, it’s the small things that really make Christmas special – so it was our aim give all 100 children supported by The GK Experience a hot meal, a fun-filled party, and a great Christmas gift. It may not sound like much, and we take these for granted every day, but without The GK Experience many of these children wouldn’t even have a hot meal over the Christmas holidays.
‘Holiday hunger’ is a real social issue for families with little income, children don’t receive their daily hot meal from school and families can really struggle to make ends meet, let alone feed and buy gifts for their children. So it was really important that we had a great Christmas meal for the kids.
Before preparations could begin we needed to raise the funds. We set up a just giving page and reached out to the public and our work, and personal, connections to ask for their support. In addition, we changed things up a bit for our clients this year – and instead of sending them our annual Pursuit Christmas Hamper, we donated the funds to The GK Experience Christmas party.
We were delighted to raise a total of £2,000, and had enough funds make the party go ahead. On Sunday the 10th of December, the GK experience volunteers were assisted by Pursuit to provide a full Christmas meal and a gift for each child, including gift cards, toys, makeup and other age-related items. And since The GK Experience know each child so well, everyone’s gifts were chosen specifically for them, so it was amazing to see their excitement on receiving such wonderful presents.
Santa made a guest appearance which was a special moment for our younger attendees, with Callum and Cassi from Clyde 1 providing fanastic music. Little Mix Magic tribute band got everyone on the dancefloor (even the adults!) and dance troop SoulClan provided an amazing performance, showing us how it’s really done! Overall it was a fantastic day and we cannot thank everyone enough for their donations and support.
Our Group Operations Director, Lorraine Gray, worked closely with The GK Experience and co-ordinated the event from start to finish, booking entertainment, contacting caterers for food donations and sourcing funding! But none of this would have been possible without the support of our clients, and contributors.
So, thank you to all our supporters.
By helping the GK experience, we have successfully gave 100 children an evening to forget about their difficult daily lives and experiencing the kind of Christmas we take for granted. Here at Pursuit we feel honoured to be part of such a great cause and we will continue to support the GK experience as much as we can.