More than 60 Hospice volunteers spent last weekend collecting trees from households and businesses around the island.

As trees were collected, they were dropped off to two chippers stationed at Le Quennevais Sports Centre in the west and Five Oaks.

Pictured: The collected trees will be turned into soil fertilizer for local agriculture.

The two chippers, supplied free of charge by CI Tree Services and Campbells Logs and Services, were a new addition to the event and helped speed up the collection process, enabled volunteers to maintain social distancing in line with Government guidelines, and reduced footfall at La Collette.

The annual tree collection service, sponsored by Mitchell Building Contractors, not only raises vital funds for Hospice, but also provides a convenient and environment-friendly way for islanders to dispose of their Christmas trees.

After being chipped and mulched, the trees become soil fertiliser for local agriculture and the scheme reduces the amount of harmful emissions from single car journeys to La Collette.

Pictured: Local individuals and businesses supported the initiative.

“It was amazing to see this support from islanders at the start of the new year from both those who signed up to have their tree collected and our amazing team of volunteers," Hospice Events Coordinator, Scott Douglas, said. "Unsurprisingly, the real challenge for us this year was to run the service in adherence to Government guidelines and most importantly to keep our volunteers and staff safe.

"In previous years, volunteers enjoyed jumping into vans together and catching up for a hot chocolate throughout the day – there's always a real sense of community. But this year we had to find pairs of volunteers from the same household and carefully designate vans. It was still a lot of fun and we are really grateful for this support!”

In addition to the team of volunteers, many of whom were supported by their employers who lent them company vans for the weekend collections, a number of local businesses partnered with Hospice to ensure the success of the event.

Pictured: 2,400 islanders signed up to the initiative this year.

Sponsors Mitchell Building Contractors provided hard hats and hi-vis jackets for all volunteers, while Webreality provided the registration website, Integrated Skills all of the route mapping. Falles, 4Hire and Jersey Van Sales lent vans free of charge while the Co-op offered refreshments for volunteers, and La Collette Green Waste site opened over the weekend to support the event.

The team at the Hospice said the support of the community – individuals and businesses – had been very much appreciated.

With many regular fundraising events still being cancelled and postponed due to COVID-19, the record- breaking success of the tree collection service was a great start to 2021 for Jersey Hospice Care.

The event will fund a whole two days of specialist care at Hospice which currently costs over £20,000 to run daily, including care for islanders at the In Patient Unit, at home, at the hospital and in residential settings, as well as Emotional and Bereavement support.

Over 126 islanders have also shown their support for the charity by signing up to the ‘Every Step Counts’ challenge.

The month-long challenge offers participants a choice of four different distances to complete whenever and wherever they wish.

Participants are asked to ‘climb’ one or more of the distances before 31 January and to raise money through sponsorship, making every step count.