HB Commercial saves the sleigh!

For 40 years, Santa and Rudolph have toured the streets bringing Christmas joy to families in Felixstowe during December. Sadly, the trailer, which has in recent years been run jointly between the Rotary Club of Felixstowe and the local branch of Save the Children, was found to be unroadworthy earlier this year.

While we were pondering what to do and the news spread, Howard Brunt of local firm HB Commercial generously offered to donate a brand-new twin axle trailer to the Rotary Club, for the benefit of the people of Felixstowe, as its replacement.

It was clear that a lot of work would be involved in creating the replacement using Howard’s generous donation. He and one of his staff members, Steve Parker, not only handled the difficult challenge of transferring Rudolph and the sleigh, but also constructed a substantial steel structure that would cater for an essential roof and support for the lighting and sound systems.

Once Rudolph and the steel structure were in place, Howard handed the trailer over to a small group of Rotarians who spent many hours constructing the roof and fitting out the lighting, colourful garlands and sound system, with an eye on making it greener using battery power rather than a petrol generator.

This was all accomplished with the clock ticking towards the beginning of December when the trailer has nightly outings around the streets of Felixstowe and surrounding villages, and also all-day static visits to Hamilton Road on Saturday 10 December, Lidl (Haven Exchange) on Sunday 11 December and Morrisons on Saturday 17 and Sunday 18 December.

To find out when Santa and Rudolph will be touring your neighbourhood, visit the Rotary Club of Felixstowe’s website: https://tinyurl.com/yc84uuw5. On the night, Santa tracker details can also be found on Visit Felixstowe’s Facebook page.

Santa and Rudolph’s tour around the streets and static visits are raising funds for Save the Children and Rotary’s chosen worthy cause, which this year is going to help those suffering hardship in Ukraine.

We were delighted to have the trailer at Felixstowe Ferry Sailing Club at our Rotary Club meeting on 24 November to celebrate its launch and to thank HB Commercial.

In the picture above you can see Ollie Brunt (second from left), M.D. of HB Commercial and son of Howard, who was not able to join us, with Rotary Club President Andrew Rowdon (third from left) and three other members of the club involved with the project.

We cannot thank Howard and Ollie of HB Commercial enough for their wonderful generosity as it provides a trailer for Santa and Rudolph that will serve the Felixstowe community for another 40 years.

Mark Davis – Rotary Club of Felixstowe