The Points of Light award is issued by the Prime Minister to outstanding individual volunteers. In December 2020, the Hartlepool Giving Tree initiative was awarded this special recognition award.

The ‘Hartlepool Giving Tree’ initiative was founded 10 years ago by Mark Rycraft, Manager of Middleton Grange Shopping Centre. The initiative encourages local people to buy gifts for underprivileged children at Christmas time with gift donations. Due to Covid-19, the initiative was moved to an online platform by website developers In Studio. This year over 174,000 Christmas gift donations were received from local people in Hartlepool, further across the UK and even internationally.  

This initiative demonstrates a fantastic collaboration between Hartlepool business including: Middleton Grange Shopping Centre, Hartlepool Carers, Harbour Hartlepool and website developers In Studio. Congratulations to everyone involved and for the well deserved recognition! Thank you to everyone who gave a gift to a child this Christmas. 

For full details of the Points of Light award please click here. 

For the ‘Hartlepool Giving Tree’ website please click here, please note donations are now closed.