Belfast Cathedral’s annual ‘Black Santa’ sit-out charity campaign will be officially launched on December 16.
The sit-out, first established in 1976 by Dean Sammy Crooks, is now in its 43rd year and helps over 500 charities across Northern Ireland each year.
Black Santa takes place the week before Christmas, when Dean Stephen Forde dresses in the familiar black Anglican clerical cloak outside St Anne’s Cathedral.
The charities helped by the sitout range from mental health and homeless charities, medical research, those caring for children, the improvement of employment opportunities, as well as a host of small charities which cannot afford paid fundraisers.
A proportion of the funds is also given to Christian Aid.
Each year, Black Santa receives hundreds of applications for funding. After Christmas, the chosen organisations are invited to send representatives to the Good Samaritans Service, usually held in the following February, where the donated funds are distributed.
TESTIMONIALS:
Young at Art
Over the past few years ‘Black Santa’ has been vital to us, supporting a number of diverse initiatives, […] In total 1,140 children and young people directly benefitted from [Young at Art’s] important work, and all thanks to ‘Black Santa’!
The Mae Murray Foundation
Black Santa enabled young people with complex disabilities to go surfing alongside their families. […] Thanks to the Black Santa for giving this young people an opportunity that many of us take for granted, the chance to have fun with your family at the beach!
CAUSE
Originally founded by two parents caring for their son and daughter ill with psychosis, CAUSE has gradually developed into a peer-led charity, run by carers for carers, working across Northern Ireland. […] We cannot thank Black Santa Sit-Out enough for its support, as it gives CAUSE the opportunity to empower, support and change the lives of those impacted by someone living with a complex and severe mental illness.
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