Smile Blog

Ari and George’s films win prestigious award

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We’re winners! Last night Spread a Smile and film maker Jules’ Creative Content won the award ‘Film: Best Use of a Smaller Budget category’ at the 2024 EVCOM London Film Awards.

The prestigious annual awards are run by EVCOM (Event and Visual Communication Association) and recognise excellence in both craft and communications, celebrating the best creative work in film.

Spread a Smile’s win is for two incredible films – George’s Story and Ari’s Story – created for us by Jules Sander. They follow the stories of George and his family and Ari and her family, from diagnosis through to treatment and meeting Spread a Smile.

Spread a Smile’s Co-Founders Josephine Segal and Vanessa Crocker, along with Chief Executive, Lucy Jackson attended the awards at a glittering ceremony at Plaisterers’ Hall, London on Thursday 28 November with Lucy saying, “Being able to share, via film, the difference our work makes to the children and families we support means a huge amount to us, and we can’t thank the Anstey and Radcliffe families enough for allowing us to tell their stories. A huge thank you to Jules (Jules’ Creative Content) for bringing such creativity, understanding and passion to the table when producing the films. Thank you to EVCOM for shortlisting us and thereby helping to raise awareness about Spread a Smile and our work bringing a little bit of joy and happiness when it’s most needed. It really is an honour to see our wonderful films recognised in this way and we are proud to be the recipient of this prestigious award.”

Please take a moment to watch George’s Story (below) and Ari’s Story on our YouTube channel. Please share far and wide and if you are able to make a donation to help ensure we can continue to be there for families like these during the darkest of days, we would be extremely grateful, thank you.

Help spread joy and love this festive season

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This festive season we want to spread even more smiles than ever before through our festive Smile Hampers and to do that we need your help.

We’ve set ourselves the huge task of sending out 1,750 Smile Hampers, packed full of gifts, hand-picked with each child in mind, and to be delivered to seriously ill children and their siblings in time for Christmas.

Just £38 will help fund two Smile Hampers, bringing so much joy during what can be an extremely difficult time for the families we support

“Christmas wouldn’t happen without you guys. Thank you so much for everything you do for us.”
Parent

When a child is seriously ill, day-to-day life is often taken over by sickness, treatment plans and hospital stays, spending time away from family and friends. The magic and wonder of the festive season can easily be lost.

Please give what you can to help fund our Smile Hampers so we can spread as much joy and happiness to the families we support during the most difficult time of their lives.

Thank you so much for your support.

Kisharon Langdon support for Mitzvah Day

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Mitzvah Day is a day of faith-based social action in November, when communities and individuals undertake a range of volunteering projects to help others.

This year, Kisharon Langdon, a charity which supports people within the Jewish learning disability and autism community, came together to help Spread a Smile bring a little joy and happiness to seriously ill children and young people.

On 24 November, their youth group which supports young people with learning disabilities, met with adults also supported by the charity at their centre in Edgware, to wrap and pack donated gifts to be included in our Smile Hampers.

The group learnt about the importance of inclusion and reaching out to others and met Spread a Smile Chief Executive, Lucy Jackson and Co-Founder, Josephine Segal who spoke about the work we do and the difference the group are helping to make to the families we support.

Lucy said, “Mitzvah Day is a very special day in the Jewish calendar and one which sees people spending time together to do something good for others. We were delighted to receive support from Kisharon Langdon and so grateful for all their efforts to help us spread smiles to children spending time in hospital, managing treatment plans and illness. Thank you from the bottom of our hearts.”

To find out more about supporting Spread a Smile, please email fundraising@spreadasmile.org

 

2nd Padel Tournament for Spread a Smile

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On Thursday 21 November, we were joined by 12 brilliant teams for our 2nd Padel Tournament of 2024, generously sponsored by our friends at Engage FS. And what an amazing day it was!

It was brilliant to be back at Stratford Padel Club and once again competition levels were high, with teams from Sidekick Management taking first and second place and HCFX coming in third.

Take a look at our photo gallery from the day.

Padel is a mix between tennis and squash and usually played in doubles on an enclosed court one third the size of a tennis court. The sport is known for combining action with fun and social interaction, it’s easy to pick up and suitable for players of all ages and skills to join in together.

We are so grateful to all of our teams (with a special shout out to BC Partners), for joining us and helping to raise vital funds to support seriously ill children, young people and their families. Also, to Stratford Padel Club, for making us so welcome and helping to ensure the day run smoothly.

Please get in touch to find out about joining us for next year’s event, or why not check out some of our other events here.

Hello World

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I’m so excited to be sharing with you the first-ever “Smile blog”. I joined the charity in July 2021 as Digital Engagement Manager (my dream job) for this most inspirational charity. And I’ve been waiting for the opportunity to create content that has a positive impact. That is what matters to me, especially when it comes to helping seriously ill children. I’m really looking forward to sharing more news of our work, the impact our services make to the children and their families and I can’t wait to host some guest interviews with some truly wonderful individuals and businesses who make our work possible.

If you would like to write a guest blog for Spread a Smile contact Jodi on info@spreadasmile.org

A note about the author, Jodi Montlake:

What drew me to work for Spread a Smile?

I officially left my 20 years plus freelancing career journey when I started at Spread a Smile. To find the right company, I needed to find somewhere special that would bring happiness and joyful experiences to young people in difficult times and I truly believe that Spread a Smile is just that. 

The most recent years of my career were spent working with some amazing startups, small and medium-sized businesses managing their social media, blogging and digital marketing efforts. I’ve also taught Pilates for many years too. Some would say I wear many hats but I think that’s what keeps my content creative and different. My favourite things about both lines of work are the people. I’m a real people person and I get energy from the people I meet, the inspirational stories I read or hear and the people I can help. Accepting the offer from Spread a Smile was a no brainer as at the very heart of what the company do, from its early beginnings with Josephine Segal and Vanessa Crocker and still today is making a positive impact on children and their families. 

I’m a mother to two children aged 12 and 10, a wife (married nearly 20 years, how did that happen)?, daughter, friend, dog owner (I have two wonderful Australian Labradoodles, definitely the easiest of my children). I was once a self-proclaimed ‘technophobe’ and now an avid adopter of innovative and digital services remains much amusement to my husband and kids.

And all this “normal life stuff” during covid-19 made me reevaluate what I wanted from life. Working for a charity gives me purpose and something to be proud of. Knowing that what I do is in some way contributing to the big picture of spreading more smiles to seriously ill children and teenagers who are in hospital gives me meaning.  I hope to make my love of digital contagious to all the team and help Spread a Smile reach its national ambitions to grow and support more users of its services. 💥

To receive the Smile blog in your inbox every week contact us on info@spreadasmile.org and title it “blog”.