Des festivités solidaires et durables
Amid the decorations, the music and the gifts, we ensured to make time for our communities this Christmas, and for their members who needed a little extra holiday cheer.
In France, Westfield Euralille opened a temporary Emmaus Village shop, taking donations from the local community and inviting visitors to help decorate the store for Christmas. Other retailers in the shopping centre gathered to donate stock to the Emmaus shop to support its fundraising activities. Westfield Euralille also decorated a dedicated space for the Oscar Lambret Centre, a local cancer charity. Visitors were given the chance to learn about the Centre’s activities and donate by purchasing gift cards.
Westfield London and Westfield Stratford City partnered with the Felix Project, a London-based charity set up to help combat food poverty. Amid a crippling cost-of-living crisis in the United Kingdom, donations from the two London Westfields will now fund 90,000 winter meals for those living in poverty in the capital. The Felix Project collects fresh, nutritious food that cannot be sold and would otherwise go to waste and redistributes it to over 1,000 organisations and schools to help the most vulnerable members of the local community.
The two shopping centres have launched a Christmas Toy Appeal to encourage toy donations for children aged 0-5 years, at Westfield Stratford City in partnership with The Magpie Project, and at Westfield London with Space. In addition to toy donations, the centres have launched permanent TRAID Textile Collection Banks London centres to encourage to donate clothes.
In Continental Europe, Westfield La Maquinista in Barcelona joined forces with neighbouring Westfield Glòries to raise money for the Cardio Dreams foundation, a non-profit set up to facilitate heart operations for those without resources from developing countries, during 31st edition of “La Marató de TV3”. Cardio Dreams also promotes cardiovascular health prevention for women, while carrying out training in the sphere of cardiovascular surgery.
At Westfield Montgomery in Maryland, more than 2,000 guests attended our “Home for the Holidays” concert, which raised more than $3,000 for the Children’s National Hospital and the Ryan Seacrest Foundation, in the presence of actor Mario Lopez. Entertainment included some of the best string musicians in the United States, plus performances from The Nutcracker by the Maryland Youth Ballet. In California, Westfield Valley Fair pledged all the profits from its holiday events and concerts to Loaves & Fishes, an organisation that helps to fight hunger and spread hope.
In these and other ways, working alongside our local communities, our retailers and our visitors, we’ve contributed to raise money for great causes, collect toys for those in need and donate time and resources to helping everyone enjoy the best of the holiday season.
We’d like to take this opportunity to thank everyone who helped us with these missions!
