It was the end of a busy week at the office when the post arrived one Friday before Christmas 2018. We opened a Christmas card and a crisp ten pound note fell out. The handwritten message inside stopped us in our tracks:

“Dear Stripy Stork
Thank you for all the help you have given me and my baby. Last year I was in a bad place and was dreading Christmas. I had no family, no presents and tried to pretend it wasn’t happening. My support worker got me some things from you and I am so greatful (sic). I didn’t realise how important it was to give my son a gift. When he opened the Frozen snowman toy and I saw his face I felt like a proper mum for the first time ever. I started to get things sorted in January and got a new job in the summer. I made a promise that this year I would support what you do at Christmas. So here is £10. I hope it makes another mum feel like I did. Thank you for all you do.”

Wow. What an incredible thing for this mum to do. The Santa Stork gift of last year – an Olaf teddy donated by In Kind Direct – had such an impact that she was paying that kindness forward. We couldn’t be more grateful.

A year on and this family are in a better position but we know there are hundreds of parents and carers in our community feeling exactly like she did – dreading Christmas and wishing it wasn’t going to happen – because they can’t provide a few simple gifts for their children to open on Christmas morning.

That’s what Santa Stork is all about – you can read all about our annual Christmas campaign here in our blog.

“I hope it makes another mum feel like I did.”

See Santa Stork page for details of how to help this year’s campaign.

The post The kindness of Christmas appeared first on Stripey Stork.

Our Santa Stork campaign really does get more extraordinary every year. This year was our fifth and the Giving Day was an incredible event. Here’s a sense of what it was all about, and some special thanks to those who played their part in making it happen.

Since October we have been building up to Giving Day, which was held on Monday 10th December this year. It was an early start for #TeamStork. With the help of ASD Transport, Karl AKA “man and a van” and our reliable team of volunteers, all the gift bags were moved from storage to Reigate Baptist Church where the real fun was about to begin.

All the presents were brand new and, wherever possible, what the children or their parents had requested on their behalf. No sibling was left out and if the referral source felt like the parent/carer could really do with a boost this Christmas, then they were also included.

We had wrapping stations setup around the hall, with lots of our regular volunteers, community groups and corporate teams who have helped us throughout the year. It was a bustle of activity, with Christmas jumpers as far as the eye could see.

Christmas songs were playing and mince pies kept everyone fueled.

To give you an idea of how busy it was, here’s a time-lapse video from the beginning to the end of the day, which is exhausting just to watch:

The referral sources who work directly with the families we were helping this Santa Stork, came and collected the presents throughout the day. Although we don’t get to see the parent’s gratification first hand when they are handed the bundle of gifts, the referral sources do and we feed off the feedback they share with us from previous years and the stories of some of the families who are about to have Christmas ‘made’ for them. It really is humbling to be part of this special day.

Emma from the Reigate & Banstead Women’s Aid refuge explains what Santa Stork means to the families they support:

We caught up with Sarah and Ellie from Children’s Hospital at Home in Croydon:

Sarah added: “Without Stripey Stork I don’t know what we would do. Many of our families are in temporary accommodation and have no access to public funds because they are waiting for their visas, which means they can’t even afford the basics never mind Christmas presents. Thank you Stripey Stork for everything you do all year round and especially at Christmas time when so many of the families we help would have nothing to celebrate.”

We set up a Christmas tree in the hall and throughout the day it was covered in messages of thanks from our referral sources.

We welcomed the Mayor of Reigate & Banstead, it was lovely that she was part of the day so she would see for herself the front line work which we are doing.

The difference we are making

This year we set ourselves a target of giving 1500 presents to local children in need and 750 of their parents/carers. There are still a lot of late requests to deal with, but on the day – thanks to your generosity – we have been able to give gift bags filled with presents to:

1367 children
730 of their parents/carers

That’s an estimate of goods valuing over £45,000!

[UPDATE: including the last minute requests we were able to give out gift bags for 1517 children and 828 of their parents/carers, that’s an estimate of £50,000 in value]

It doesn’t escape us how bittersweet this message is. Every year we predict a rise in requests and sadly this has so far been the case:

Santa Stork 2017: 1040 children/438 adults
Santa Stork 2016: 767 children/370 adults
Santa Stork 2015: 487 children/295 adults
Santa Stork 2014: 146 children/56 adults

But Santa Stork has a fantastic team of supporters behind it so we are able to rise to this challenge.

We have an extensive referral contact’s database, a mammoth spreadsheet and the best Chief Elf (Lauren) which Santa could wish for, and not forgetting her hardworking and enthusiastic team of elf volunteers.

A big thank you

Here’s a shout-out to all those who have made a special contribution to this campaign.

• All of our supporters who have donated online, shopped from our Amazon wish list, or gone shopping and bought a present from our suggested gift list. Your generosity is immense – Thank you!
• All of our wonderful referral sources who made requests for the families they support, and then collected and distributed the gifts.
• Cllr Barbara Thomson for her Surrey County Council Community Grant which contributed to the rent of the storage space we needed to run the project.
• The Mayor of Reigate & Banstead for coming along on Giving Day to find out about our charity and Christmas campaign, and being part of this special day.
• In Kind Direct and Disney Store UK for the 48 Mickey Mouse soft toys, donated as part of their #GiftMagic campaign.
• Le Toy Van for donating nearly 1000 brand new Budkins – high quality wooden figures for our gift bags.
• Andy Nash and the team at the Belfry for helping on Giving Day. Also including us to benefit from the Santa’s Grotto charity donations, providing gifts for Santa Stork, donating £140 vouchers to purchase last minute gifts from the Belfry, and allowing us to be at the Greatest Show Christmas lights switch!
• The Saccone Joly family for donating 400 A Friend of My Own dolls – cuddly, soft and suitable for all ages.
• Celtic Contractors Ltd who’ve been involved every year so far, with staff purchasing gifts from their own Amazon wishlist.
• The Communications Team at Grant Thornton International who purchased gifts from their own Amazon wishlist.
• The Social Media Team at ASOS, who had their own Amazon wishlist, instead of doing Secret Santa.
• ITW Construction Products who bought gifts and stocking fillers from their own Amazon wishlist and from our suggested gift list.
• The IHS Markit team in Coulsdon who bought items from our Santa Stork Amazon wishlist.
• Fidelity who bought items from our suggested gift list.
• JLT who bought items from our suggested gift list.
• Total Gas & Power who bought items from our suggested gift list, and their charity committee matched with a donation of £180.
• The Fix Auto team in Crawley, who did an inhouse collection of presents from our suggested list.
• Busy Lizzy Reigate for arranging gifts from our suggested list to be collected.
• Gipsy Hill Brew who held a Christmas event where they collected gifts from our suggested wishlist.
• The families at Banstead Infant School who donated an amazing £608.46 by collecting money after the school Christmas performances.
• The parents at Holmesdale Community Infant School who collected stocking fillers.
• Hazelwood School in Oxted who raised an impressive £243 by fundraising at their Christmas fair and donated some new plush soft toys.
• Aberdour Preparatory School who donated £450.52 from their Christmas fair.
• Downsend School Ashtead Pre-Prep, for the parents who donated presents from our suggested gift list and books.
• Oakhyrst Grange School who collected gifts at their school fair.
• Reigate Methodist Church who collected donations at their Christmas Tree Festival and contributed £340.44
• The Parish of Merstham who held a collection at their Christingle service and raised £38.
• Surrey Sands who invited families to attend their Lights of Love service and bring a gift for a child the same age as what their baby would have been this Christmas.
• Caterham WI who collected gifts and stocking fillers at their AGM.
• Caterham Round Table who generously donatedthe funds to purchase the gift bags.
• Horley Lions Club who donated £300 towards late gift requests.
• Redhill Redstone Rotary Club who donated £165, and some Usborne Illustrated Dictionaries and Steiff Reindeer teddies for presents.
• All Things Chic whose proceeds from their Red Barn shopping event raised enough to buy 40 items from our suggested gift list.
• Tropic Skincare for donating gift sets and toiletries to use as parent/carer gifts.
• Corinne, a long term supporter who kindly purchased popular gifts throughout the year and from our suggested gift list, and generously donated them to Santa Stork.
• Esther who, with the help of her friends, prepared 56 gift bundles for teenagers and parents/carers.
• Emily, Joanne and their family and friends, who coordinated a large collection of gifts.
• The Babbage family who support us throughout the year and donated a number of presents.
• Sara who donated lots of book from her Usborne Children’s Books business.
• Tesco Community Champions who organised an in-store collection of gifts which was generously supported by Tesco Gatwick staff and shoppers.
• The Harrow Vintage Inn in Warlingham, who had a Giving Tree for Santa Stork late requests, where tags for specific ages/genders were placed on the tree for customers to take away and purchase a gift. They also raised £140.
• The other local charities involved in the local #LetsGiveChristmas campaign: Voluntary Action Reigate & Banstead, Loveworks, Renewed Hope Trust, Epsom & Ewell Foodbank. Thank you to Pfizer UK for their help with the communications and media planning for the #LetsGiveChristmas campaign.
• Our friends at Halliwell Marks, Walter & Mair, Pistachios Memorial Park, Redhill, TSB in The Belfry, and Let’s Explore, Horley who were so accommodating in allowing people to drop-off presents at their premises.
• Atkins Global who donated £250 to allow us to fulfil the last minute requests.
• RBBC Town Hall who took delivery of all the Amazon parcels from the wishlist and delivered them to us.
• Alex Whiteley for producing the #SantaStork2018 launch video: ‘Give a gift, make a memory’. Thank you also to all those who took part: Ortis @OrtisDeley, Natalie @ThisSurreyMummy, Nicola @IAmNicolaSemple, Cathryn @SeasonalKids, Sarah @PickSarah, Kate @Imagineville16, Josh @JoshPBK.
• Karl Hyder, AKA the man and a van! and ASD Transport who helped transport the gift bags on the day.
• Maraya Gibbs for being our official photographer for the day.
• The team at Reigate Baptist Church for donating the use of their hall and facilities for the day.
• And finally… our amazing Santa Stork team of volunteers – Ann, Gill, Gaynor, Megan, Lisa, Jo, Emma, Sarah S, Sarah C, Debby, Margarida, Donna, Susy, Nicola, Sonya and Jenny, all ably led by Chief Elf Lauren.

If you still want to help with last minute present requests, of which there will be many, you can still donate to our Localgiving Appeal. Thank you!

Merry Christmas everyone xx

The post Santa Stork 2018 – our giving day appeared first on Stripey Stork.

With half term upon us and Christmas spirits running high with the recent launch of Santa Stork, we thought now would be the perfect time for those Christmas craft activities. We encourage all of our ‘storklets’ to get involved in making decorations for what promises to be the best Stripey Stork Christmas tree yet, something for us all to be proud of and which truly represents what Stripey Stork is about. So, we are thinking lots of orange and turquoise (forget the standard red and green Christmas colours), our mascot Stripey, recycling, children and babies. What comes to mind when you think of Stripey Stork and how can this be represented in a Christmas tree decoration? If you have an answer to this, then get crafting!

The Christmas Tree Festival is being held at the Reigate Community Centre (High Street) on:

• Friday 7th December (from 12-6pm)
• Saturday 8th December (10am-6pm)
• Sunday 9th December (12-4pm)

We’d love to see as many of you there as possible, enjoying Stripey’s tree and all of the other fantastic trees on display. We are also one of the chosen charities being collected for this year, so do come and show your support. In order for us to have our tree Christmas-ready and for it to be enjoyed in its full glory at our offices, we ask that you drop your decorations off at our HQ by Friday 23 November. Here’s some inspiration to get you started.

Stripey goes Pixel

Thank you to Dylan (age 9) for inspiring us with this fantastic Quixels version of Stripey. So, it got us thinking, this would look great turned into a Christmas decoration.

We made versions using Hama beads (iron well on both sides to make sure that the legs stick together), plastic canvas and cross stitch.

What other materials can you make Stripey from? Here’s a pattern you may want to use.

A Star Reader

We love books here at Stripey Stork, in fact we try to include a bundle of age appropriate books for every child we help as we recognise how important they are for development. If you have books at home which are too well-loved to pass onto a new family, then why not make them into decorations and give them a different purpose?

Using an old annual, we made some origami lucky stars. Simply cut the pages into strips about 1 inch (2.5 cm) wide, stick them together with tape to get a long strip about 22 inches (55cm) long.

This tutorial shows you how to fold it into a 3D star shape. Adults may need to help here as it’s a little fiddly, but well worth the effort.

Once you’ve made your star, use a needle and thread to add a hanging loop through one of the star points. Beads can be added to the hanging loop to add some extra sparkle.

Here’s a tutorial for making different shaped baubles from book pages, where you can choose squares (like we have here on the right), circles or stars. And here’s another tutorial for making a different type of star. Who’d have thought you could do so much with just some old books?

Felt the Halls

Felt decorations can be nice and easy to make. For a traditional Christmas icon (snowman, holly, present etc.) all you need is the outline of the shape, you’ll be able to find lots of templates online – clip art is always a good source. Stick to simple, unfussy, designs.

If you want to make something more bespoke, you may need to design your own. For example, we wanted to make a baby vest decoration (orange and turquoise of course) to represent all of the bags of clothes we give out at Stripey Stork. Did you know that last year we gifted 633 clothes bags to local families in need? Using a piece of paper, fold it in half if the shape is symmetrical, draw the outline and cut it out. Then cut out two layers of felt using the shape as a stencil.

Decorate the front with embellishments, buttons, beads, ribbons and/or bells (we particularly like bells as they jingle). Pin the front of the decoration to the back. At this stage add a ribbon loop to hang on the tree later. Sew the front of the decoration to the back using either a double strand of sewing or embroidery thread. Just before you get to the end of the stitching, add a little stuffing. Then voila, finish off and it’s all ready to hang on the tree.

A Toy’s Story

Did you know that last year alone we donated 376 toys and book bags? And that’s not even including Santa Stork! At Stripey Stork we make sure every preloved puzzle that we pass on is complete, otherwise imagine the disappointment for a child when they get to the end of the puzzle only to realise that there’s a piece missing! These incomplete puzzles make great Christmas decorations.

Simply paint the puzzle pieces a colour of your choice (no pressure, but orange, blue and yellow are our firm favourites here), glue together in a snowflake shape and add a ribbon. We recommend adding some Christmas sparkle with embellishments or glitter. A little tip – we found it much easier to paint the cardboard back of the puzzle pieces, not the shiny front.

Have a think about other toys you could use? We thought some old, battered toy cars painted orange would look great.

Fabulous Fabric Decorations

At Stripey Stork we get so many great donations, but occasionally some of the clothes don’t pass our quality checks. We always like to say that if it’s not good enough to pass onto a friend, then it’s not good enough to pass onto any of the families which we support. We want our recipients to feel like they are receiving a gift and not a hand out.

So, if you have any baby clothes which are at the end of their life, then give them another life. Like we have here, by making mini fabric Christmas trees using this tutorial.

Other ideas for using fabric scraps can be found here and here.

If you are short of fabric, then you can always swing by our office (after half term of course), and we’ll be happy to help you out.

Let the Crafting begin…

We hope you’ve enjoyed our designs. If you have any ideas of your own then please share them in the comments below. One of our volunteers (Sam West) has already been busy as you can see.

Now, all you need is a day chilling at home and it’ll be the perfect excuse to set to work. We can’t wait to see all your creations on our Stripey Stork tree, we know you’ll do us proud, you always do! And don’t stop at our tree – make some keepsake decorations for your own tree too, and let us know how you get on.

Speaking of keeping the kids entertained, here’s our Stripey Stork colouring sheet too for them to enjoy this half term.

The post Stripey Stork’s Christmas tree – we need your help appeared first on Stripey Stork.

What an incredible day. Today was the #SantaStork2017 giving day. It really does get more extraordinary every single year.

We started early and loaded up all the gifts that we’d collected thanks to your support.

Lots of cars and a van were loaded up and taken to the hall we’d booked for our giving day.

Thanks to all your help, generosity and support, we were ready to pass out gift bags filled to the brim with goodies for 874 children and 385 of their parents and carers – isn’t that fantastic!

UPDATE: including the last minute requests we were able to give out gift bags for 1040 children and 438 of their parents and carers. 

The referral sources we work with came and collected the presents they’d requested for the families they support. All the presents were brand new and, in almost all cases, were items that the family or children has specifically requested.

Goods valuing £38,000 have been distributed, and they were sent with the very best wishes from everyone involved in supporting the campaign.

We were delighted to welcome Cllr Barbara Thomson and show her the wrapping day in full flow!

It was humbling to talk to the professionals about the difference the gifts would make; professionals who are supporting vulnerable local families all year around. We heard so many stories about how the gifts being collected were literally the only things the children would receive on Christmas Day.

Without Santa Stork, and your kindness, these local children wouldn’t be receiving anything.

We had a full house of ‘wrapping elves’ today, with help from a record number of people. It was so good to see lots of regular Stripey Stork faces, as well as plenty of new ones, particularly from some of the corporate teams who’ve helped us with our collections this year.

We’re very grateful to those who took time out of their busy schedule to come and lend a hand. You can’t beat #TeamStork for team spirit and there was a wonderful atmosphere in the hall.

We were also delighted to be speaking with That’sTV Surrey today who kindly came along to see the culmination of #SantaStork2017 after they featured our launch back in October.

You can watch their feature here:

https://youtu.be/pWLJkm00jyY

We were also featured on BBC Radio Surrey this morning on this link, which if you go to 1 hour 23 minutes you’ll hear Chief Elf Lauren speaking about Nicola setting up the charity and explaining about Santa Stork.

Of course none of this was possible without the support we received from so many:

• All of our supporters who donated online, shopped from our Amazon wish list, or went out and bought a present using our suggested gifts. Your generosity is humbling – THANK YOU!
• All our wonderful referral sources who made a request and then who collected and distributed gifts
• Localgiving and their #GrowYourTenner match funding scheme. We raised an additional £580 which effectively meant new presents for an extra 50 children!
• Cllr Barbara Thomson for her Surrey County Council community grant which covered rental of the storage space we needed to run the project and the purchase of gift bags
• In Kind Direct and Disney Store UK for the 48 Olaf soft toys as part of the #GiftMagic campaign
• Andy Nash and the team at the Belfry  for helping at the giving day, including us to benefit from the Santa’s Grotto charity donations, providing gifts for Santa Stork and allowing us to promote the charity in the centre via wrapping days and being at the big Christmas light switch on with James and Ola!
• Celtic Contractors Ltd who got involved for the 4^thyear. All 40 staff purchased gifts in their now annual collection.
• Oakhyrst Grange School who collected toys at their school fair
• The parents at Holmesdale Community Infant School who collected stocking fillers
• Dunnottar School who raised over £300 to buy presents from our Amazon wishlist
• Our friends at Halliwell Marks, Walter & Mair, Pistachios Memorial Park, Redhill, TSB in The Belfry, and Let’s Explore, Horley who were so accommodating in allowing people to drop off presents at their premises
• The talented Shona Gow who produced the Santa Stork Activity Pack and Thank You Certificate available to all those who donated online or bought a gift, and our lovely Christmas card
• Caterham WI  who collected gifts and purchased stocking fillers with the proceeds of the raffle. They also provided volunteers for the wrapping weekend at The Belfry.
• Karl Hyder, AKA the man and a van! who helped bring the gifts from HQ to the wrapping location on the day
• Allianz Global Assistance UK – helped with wrapping gifts and staff raised £256.02
• Luxury beauty brand Jurlique who generously donated 300 products for mums with a value of £9660
• Redhill and Reigate Round Table no.119  who kindly made a donation of £500
• All Things Chic – proceeds from Red Barn shopping event raised enough to buy 20 items on our wish list
• Mila and Mateo who sold Halloween glowsticks after school raising £56 which we used to buy 180 packs of chocolate coins
• Milk + Poop who created a Black Friday shopping deal which meant we received a lovely box of brightly coloured cuddly toys and cellular blankets
• The ladies from Pfizer who helped sort presents on their volunteer day and who gathered their teams together at their offices in a campaign to generously donate selected age group’s gifts
• Bailhache Linton who made a donation in lieu of sending Christmas cards and helped out in the office during a CSR day
• Willis Towers Watson who came to sort through gifts during two CSR days
• Metro Bank – sorting gifts at CSR day
• IHS Markit, Coulsdon who helped prepare gift bags and who also collected lots of gifts and stocking fillers
• M&S Redhill who chose Stripey Stork as their annual charity and held an instore staff collection for Santa Stork 2017
• Horley Tangent who donated time at the wrapping days in The Belfry and held a shopping evening raising £700
• Corrine Yates and family who bought, raised money and collected so many items from Southern Housing
• That’s TV Surrey for featuring our story
• Horley Evening WI for their cheque for £160
• RBBC Town Hall who took delivery of all the Amazon parcels from the wish list and delivered them to us
• Bargains4Ever Redhill – contributing toys and allowing us to purchase items at cost price
• The Local Handyman for donating online and buying chocolate section boxes
• Emilia Hunt who donated some of her beautiful hand made fabric goods
• Redhill Confetti who donated craft packs for some of the children
• Esure who donated gifts and stocking fillers
• 3FEV who donated specific Tesla items for a young fanatic on our list!
• Tim’s Pastry Club who donated treats for the wrapping tables – yum!
• Nicola Churchill from Co-Tribe who held a collection and donated some gifts
• The communications team at Grant Thornton International who helped with campaign planning and with getting videos ready to share on our social media channels
• Tesco Community Champions who organised an in-store collection of gifts which was generously supported by Tesco Gatwick shoppers
• The team at the PNL Centre, St Joseph’s Church Hall for making us so welcome and for allowing us to use the hall as a discount rate
• And finally… our amazing Santa Stork team of volunteers – Jenny, Margarida, Nicola, Megan, Angie, Emma, Lisa, Andrea, Sarah C, Sarah S all ably led by Chief Elf Lauren.

Merry Christmas everyone xx

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Supermarket/store vouchers like Nectar, Tesco Clubcard and the Boots Advantage Card can be perfect for picking up a bargain – have you checked your balance lately? It’s a great feeling at the checkout when you can buy something with just your points!

Black Friday deals! We’re following MoneySavingExpert, who have some interesting predictions on what to expect this year, and a useful blog on live deals here. There’s certainly lots being written in the media, so here’s hoping for bargains galore! Lots of retailers have 3 for 2’s and various different deals to be had at this time of year, like M&S on their Christmas department, as well as Boots, and Tesco. The Works have 2 for £10 too with a great selection of crafting and activity kits. There are also some great book sets at The Book People, which are really useful for us in our aim to put a book into each gift bag we put together. That’s 1,000 books needed! It’s worth keeping a close eye on Amazon for their well known lightning deals, but do crosscheck with Money Saving Expert to make sure they’re the cheapest, and don’t get caught up in the pressure of the countdown clock! Also, before you buy, read about what types of gifts we need here.

Give as you Live is a brilliant cash back website, only this time your designated charity receives the cash back! It’s a great way to raise money for charity for free, as the way the charity receives the money isn’t by you having to pay any more, it’s simply that the retailer pays a commission to Give as you Live, with 50% of it going to your charity. It’s really easy to join, and it’s completely FREE, just click here. With major retailers such as Amazon, John Lewis, Tesco, Sainsbury’s and Argos, it’s well worth setting up an account and getting into the habit of shopping via Give as you Live.

Do you have any new/unused gifts that you haven’t got round to using? Consider whether they might fit the bill for a child or parent/carer. Read about what types of gifts we need here.

Come and volunteer! We have lots of need for volunteers whether sorting items at our office (plenty of tea and coffee on offer, and biscuits/cakes!) or helping out at our upcoming present wrapping stall at The Belfry on 2^nd and 3^rd December – email us at info@stripeystork.org.uk if you’d like to get involved.

Thank you so much for your support #TeamStork.

For more information about our year round work and instructions on how and when to donate, see this page. 

To sign up to receive our email updates, please fill in the form below:

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Imagine having to tell your children that they won’t be receiving any presents at Christmas. No presents at all.
Children still in Junior school who wouldn’t have stories to share about the presents they received when they went back after the holidays.

That was the reality for a local family being supported by one of our referral sources back in 2017. A family who wished that they didn’t need the support of Stripey Stork and our Santa Stork campaign but who sadly did. When talking to Mum about gift choices for the children she only mentioned two of her children:

“I’ve already told the older ones they won’t be getting anything this year” she explained sadly.

But we were able to help thanks to your support, and requests for the whole family were added to our Santa Stork list.

It’s the reality of stories like this which make us realise how necessary our annual Christmas campaign is in bringing Christmas to as many local children in need as we can – regardless of age or circumstance!

See Santa Stork page for details of how to help this year’s campaign.

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