shmu launched its fifth annual Christmas For All Appeal in November 2025. The Appeal is the idea of Breakfast Show hosts Dave Ironside and Sandy Gibson and was inspired when Dave helped at Mission Christmas in 2020. Dave said “I was up helping at Mission Christmas just after people had felt the brunt of COVID and was astounded and humbled at the way that the local community dug deep to help kids less fortunate than themselves, so I was determined to try something at shmu the following year.
Dave and Sandy along with the other Breakfast Show hosts devised a “Reverse Advent Calendar” which would ask people to take stuff into the building so that we could deliver the items to a local foodbank just before Christmas and they were blown away by the response.
Fast forward five years and Christmas For All 2025 was launched in mid-November, Dave said “We had a little meeting and decided that the items would go to the Tilly Flat for their Foodbank, it seemed perfect as Tillydrone are one of the important communities here at shmu and I had interviewed Fiona from the flat on a few occasions and I had always been impressed by her dedication and passion that she had for helping the local community we also knew that Foodbanks struggle with demand over the festive period so it seemed a perfect fit.
Over the following weeks the contributions grew and grew with donations from volunteers, staff and listeners, from base essentials like beans and soup to nappies and petfood and knitted hats and gloves.
On Friday the 19th of December Dave, Sandy and fellow volunteer Rachael loaded the cars and headed down to the Tilly Flat with 25 bags and boxes packed full of goodies and delivered it to a happy Fiona and her team.
Dave said “I really have to thank each and every one who donated to the appeal, it is heartwarming to know that there are kind people out there who have made a massive difference to the community and made things just a wee bit easier over the Festive period”.
Tilly Community Flat’s Development Worker, Fiona commented “We were absolutely overwhelmed to receive such an incredible donation from shmu as part of our festive appeal. Getting such a wonderful gift when so many of our service users are facing Christmas with very little cheer was an absolute blessing. The donations were so thoughtful and helped so many vulnerable families at a time when its most needed. A huge, huge thank you to everyone who donated to the reverse advent calendar – your kindness and generosity mean the world to us all.”