Easter Chick Knit
Knitted Easter chicks filled with a creme egg are sold to raise funds for Francis House.
Rachel Astill with the results of the Easter Knitted Chick appeal
Easter Chick Appeal
Every year, thousands of little woolly chicks flock into Francis House, knitted by crafty supporters from across the world.
The chicks are then filled with a donated chocolate egg each and sold in schools, stores and businesses all over Greater Manchester to raise funds for the hospice.
Hundreds of knitters put their needles to work for Easter 2018, producing more than 40,000 chicks between them and helping the campaign to raise over £50,000!
Get involved for 2019
Whatever your skill set, there is a way for everyone to get involved with the Easter Knitted Chick Appeal!
Don’t forget to get your chicks and eggs to us by the 25th March.
Knit or Crochet for us
Put your needles to work and knit up as many little chicks as you can manage. Chicks can be as colourful as you please: the quirkier, the better! We also have a crochet pattern you can follow.
Feel free to get creative and customise your chicks with knitted hats, scarves and accessories. However, simple traditional chicks are very welcome too!
If you fancy something a little different, why not try out the pattern for an Easter bunny?
Please send in your finished chicks by March 25th 2019.
You can drop off your chicks at the fundraising office (open Mon-Fri, 9 am – 5 pm) our post them in to: ‘Fundraising Office, Francis House Children’s Hospice, 390 Parrswood Road, Didsbury, Manchester, M20 5NA’, marking your parcel ‘Easter Chicks’.
Scroll to the bottom of the page to download all the patterns.
Donate or collect Creme Eggs for us
Every chick we receive needs pairing with a chocolate egg (Cadbury’s Crème Egg sized). Help us source the thousands we need by setting up a collection in your workplace, school or at home, by purchasing a box or two to drop off at the hospice, or by making a donation towards the cost of the eggs.
Sell
We are always looking for more venues to take an order of chicks to sell. Schools, nurseries, offices or shops can be great selling points. We will supply you with as many chicks (or bunnies) as you wish, along with collection tubs and posters.
Volunteer to help
Picking up eggs
We’ve contacted lots of supermarkets around Greater Manchester and Cheshire asking for Creme Eggs, but we need help collecting all the donations. We’re looking for volunteers to cover their local area – picking up eggs from local stores as and when they are offered – and then dropping them off at the hospice whenever is convenient.
Egg stuffing
Filling 40,000 plus chicks with a Creme Egg each can be very time-consuming for our small fundraising team. We need volunteers to fill chicks with eggs and count out orders in the run up to Easter.
Chick Hospital
Some chicks arrive a little crumpled from their journey in the post or are too big to firmly hold an egg. Our ‘Chick Hospital’ needs volunteers to administer stitches, fix broken beaks or perform googly eye transplants. Chick fixers can carry out a shift either on site in our fundraising office in Didsbury, or at home in your spare time. We will provide all the bits and bobs you’ll need.
Chick Deliveries
We’d also welcome help with dropping off orders to many venues across Greater Manchester. Would you be willing to spare some time to deliver chicks around a certain area? It doesn’t need to be a bulk delivery; many of our selling points place further top-up orders, which can be cost-inefficient to deliver ourselves. Perhaps you live in Didsbury but travel to a certain area regularly (or vice versa), and could pick up chicks to deliver on your way? If you’d be willing to help, just let us know the area, and we’ll get in touch if/when we need you!
Stalls & Collections
Would you be willing to man a stall selling chicks, or help collect money to buy Creme Eggs? We need volunteer stallholders who could spare a few hours w/c April 15th to sell chicks (exact timings/locations TBC). We also need volunteer collectors to help raise money towards the cost of Creme Eggs on the following dates (for as many or as few hours as you like!)
- Thursday 7th March at Tesco Burnage (10am – 4pm)
- Friday 22nd March at Sainsbury’s Hazel Grove (10am – 6pm)
To offer your help with any of the above, please email Rachel or call 0161 443 2200.