Cover of Band Aid's Christmas classic by Doncaster team raises £1,000 for Shelter

The bubbly, albeit out of tune, MultiWebMarketing team – based in Doncaster – hit the mic to put smiles on faces over Christmas and their efforts have been rewarded with a flood of donations.

Regional Community Fundraiser Ellie Tomlin, who recently attended the team’s office to receive a cheque for the donations, was impressed by the creative nature and light-hearted humour of the video.

“We absolutely loved the video,” she said. “It was a bit different, it was entertaining and I think at Christmas it really appealed to viewers and helped to drive fundraising.

“We get extremely busy in November and December so it was fantastic to see the video and enjoy that feelgood factor it created.”

The brains behind the “smash hit” was MultiWebMarketing’s Content and Social Media Manager Hayley Leeming who convinced her peers to show off their vocals, however out of tune they may be.

“We always like to do something at Christmas to support a charity and the work Shelter was doing just really appealed to the team.,” said Hayley.

Managing Director Paul Smith added: “We believe everyone should have a safe home. We are proud to support this incredible charity and help make a change by spreading ’a smile of joy’ this festive season.”

You can watch the musical masterpiece here.

The work Shelter does across its 11 UK hubs supports people who are homeless across the country and the work in particular out of Sheffield provides a helping hand to many affected across Yorkshire.

To put the £1,000 fundraising donations into context, each call to the charity’s helpline costs about £20 so this could pay for 50 more calls to be answered.

“When someone feels frightened and they don’t know what to do, our emergency helpline is a way for them to get in touch with us,” explained Ellie.

“We are quite often helping people who feel like they have hit rock bottom, often due to relationship breakdowns or eviction from their home which might be due to rent arrears or simply the landlord has decided they don’t want them to live there anymore. It is usually reasons outside of their control so it could genuinely happen to anyone.”

“We work hard to ensure people are given the help they are entitled to or need to get back on their feet.”

Shelter has a number of official corporate partnerships in place with large businesses such as HSBC, Nationwide and B&Q. One of the targets of 2022 is to drive increased support from small to medium-sized businesses and there a lot of ways to get involved.

Ellie said: “Since the start of the pandemic, there are a lot of charities out there appealing for funding and there’s a lot of competition and everyone is doing amazing things, so we appreciate being able to raise awareness around what we are doing.”

If you or your business would like to support Shelter then get in touch with Ellie on [email protected]

In these confusing and worrying times, local journalism is more vital than ever. Thanks to everyone who helps us ask the questions that matter by taking out a subscription or buying a paper. We stand together. Liam Hoden, editor.