In November 2010, Prince William and Miss Catherine Middleton (now the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge) gave their first joint interview: their engagement interview. Their words about the future were very striking:
It’s about making your own future and your own destiny and Kate will do a very good job of that
Prince William (now The Duke of Cambridge)
Yes, well I really hope I can make a difference, even in the smallest way. I am looking forward to helping as much as I can – Catherine Middleton
Miss Catherine Middleton (now The Duchess of Cambridge)
And today 10 years onwards, The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge have not only carved a successful path for themselves but for the people around the society too who follows them, their work, and causes they support.
Ten years ago this week, the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge were married on a beautiful, sunny spring day in front of their closest family and friends .. and the world’s most prestigious world leaders – 1200 to be exact.
Many wondered what to buy this lovely couple to celebrate the special occasion. In lieu of gifts, the young couple requested that donations be made to 26 different charities close to both of their hearts.
Among the charities are Peace Players, which promotes cross-community cohesion by teaching children basketball in Northern Ireland; Oily Cart, a children’s theatre group working specially with disabled groups; Into University, which encourages teenagers to apply for higher education; Beat Bullying; Combat Stress and Cruse Bereavement Care for the children of military casualties.
Charities working in Australia, New Zealand and Canada will also benefit. The prince is on his way to New Zealand to meet those involved in the Christchurch earthquake and the Pike River mine disaster last November, before heading to Queensland to visit the site of the January floods there.
As the bells rang at Westminster Abbey, so too did the bells of charity. Reports estimate that the royal couple’s Royal Wedding Charitable Gift Fund made approximately $1.7 million.
To celebrate the tenth anniversary of the wedding of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, a charitable fundraiser has been initiated. The benefiting charity: Baby Basics UK.
The ongoing pandemic has hit our society from all fronts but some vulnerable young children and families got the worst part of the hits. In the summer of 2020, The Duchess of Cambridge unveiled a fantastic initiative of bringing baby banks and British brands together in a bid to boost support for vulnerable families. The Duchess of Cambridge brought together nineteen British brands and retailers to donate over 10,000 new items to more than 40 baby banks nationwide.
As part of Catherine’s Early Years Initiative, Baby Basics UK is “a growing network of centres across the UK working to provide practical support to families in need.”
Catherine visited the UK Headquarter of Baby Basics in Sheffield where she helped staff unpack donations.
Through the pandemic, Baby Basics opened 11 (eleven!!!) new centres, provided 1602 children and their parents with a care package containing essential toiletries, 835 parents with means of safe access to their communities with a pram/stroller or siling, 1328 children with toys and books to stimulate their intellectual development and over 8500 nappies.
Follow Baby Basics on Facebook, Twitter, Vimeo and Instagram!
Also visit their website, baby-basics.org.uk
This campaign, which originated on Twitter and Instagram, was created by “Kate’s Rangers” and supports Baby Basics UK.
Kate’s Rangers have asked the Royal fans and followers to donate products to Baby Basics through an Amazon wish list instead of donating money. The wishlist includes a range of products from nappies to prams starting from £1.
Anyone who wishes can purchase essential baby items that will be delivered directly to Baby Basics UK and then distributed as needed. Items had to be added to the wishlist in just 15 hours because of the quick support of this campaign.
If you want to donate too, click here!
The Fan account reached Cat Ross, CEO of Baby Basics and asked them about their work, how The Duchess of Cambridge got involved with the charity, how the pandemic affected the charity’s work and how they can be helped via donations.
Question 1: “What is Baby Basics?”
Cat Ross, CEO of Baby Basics: “Baby Basics is a volunteer led charity that is very much like a food bank but for baby essentials so we operate through: professional referrals, that’s referrals through midwives, health visitors, social workers or other charities, to provide families with new born children, or children under the age of 5 years old with everything they need for life with their children, so that’s clothing, toys, toiletries nappies and higher end larger items like cots, buggies, high chairs.
“We started in Sheffield back in 2009 and now we have 48 centres across the UK.”
Question 2: “How did the Duchess of Cambridge get involved with BabyBasics?”
Cat Ross, CEO of Baby Basics: “Her Royal Highness the Duchess of Cambridge first became aware of Baby Basics through our centre in West Norfolk which is she volunteered with them early on in the pandemic to hear from our centre leads down there and a local health professional who regularly refers to Baby Basics what the impact of Covid-19 was having on families.
“Following that visit and that volunteering opportunity, she got in contact with myself at Baby Basics UK to find out how herself and The Royal Foundation could support us and Baby Banks across the UK.”
Question 3: “How has the pandemic affected your service?”
Cat Ross, CEO of Baby Basics: “So throughout Covid-19 we’ve seen a massive increase in demand for our services across our centres in the UK. We’ve had an increase of over 166% and in Sheffield which is our inaugural and our busiest centre the increase in demand has been over 400% where I’m sat right now is our new second store room in Sheffield that we’ve had to create since the pandemic began just to enable us to store enough stock to meet the needs of the families.
“We’ve also really struggled in getting donations either because some of our centres across the UK have not been able to take in second hand goods and have had to buy new or people just haven’t been able to donate to us in the same way.”
Question 4: “What has been the impact from the Duchess’s visit?”
Cat Ross, CEO of Baby Basics: “Having her involved has been phenomenal. Not only has she brought together the 19 British brands that were part of the initiative
to donate really high quality items to us we’ve also encouraged other brands to come on board. It’s been great to be able to include these high quality new items along with the brilliant second hand donations that we receive.
“At Baby Basics, it’s really important to us that we show value to these families that we support. To show them that they’re loved, that they’re important and that somebody cares and just because they’re having to access a baby bank doesn’t mean that they should access second hand quality goods and we’re really excited that all the brands involved are continuing to donate to us.
“Right now I’m stood in what we call the control room here at our HQ in Sheffield and here we process all of those brands all of those donations from those brands that come to us and distribute them around our Baby Basics Centres across the UK.”
Question 5: “How has the support been during the pandemic?”
Cat Ross, CEO of Baby Basics: “Here in Sheffield and across our centres we’ve seen a HUGE amount of love and blessing from the general public who’ve done their upmost to try and get us what we need, when we need it and if they haven’t been able to buy us specific items they’ve been able to donate to us financially so that we can go and buy those items.
“So we’re really thankful and I’m really proud as CEO of Baby Basics UK that all of our centres across the UK have been able to keep going through the pandemic and not just keep going, we’ve managed to open 8 new centres since the pandemic began which is absolutely phenomenal and now we’re at centre number 49 and hope to be at centre 50 in the very near future.”
Baby Basics opened their fiftieth center shortly after this video was shot and now has 50 centers in total.
Update (30th April, 2021) :
Question 6: “What items are most in demand?”
Cat Ross, CEO of Baby Basics: “I would say that all the items that we give out are always in demand and there isn’t really any item that is higher in demand than others, different families have different needs but the items we do struggle to get in more than most are some of the higher tiaket items like cots, buggies, high chairs, baby bouncers. But equally, some of those items that some people may just not think of things like breast pads, mattraiy pads, changing mats, changing bags, all of these items are absolutely vital for new mums.
“Equally, we want to support families as a whole so items and toiletries for new dads are also really really valuable to us.”
*** End of Update ***
Thank you so much to Kate’s Rangers for teaming up with Baby Basics, starting this amazing initiative, bringing everyone together and managing such a fundraiser! I have wittnessed the background of their preparations in the last few weeks and I feel very happy and lucky to have included me in that.
They’ve been working hard for this for months, and the result in just a few days is amazing. This is the first time I have been involved in such a charity event, and now I’m even more aware of the huge support for charities. See you at more fundraiser in the future!
Follow Kate’s Rangers on Twitter and Instagram to learn more!
Cambridges News 
Good blog you have got here.. Itís hard to find good quality writing like yours nowadays. I honestly appreciate individuals like you! Take care!!
LikeLike