The Santa Bus is £18,350 short of £500,000 for local charities

The Santa Bus needs £18,350 this winter to take its total past £500,000 for local good causes. Brighton & Hove Buses^1,2,3,4,5 has raised £481,649.51 for local charities and community organisations with the bus in the 22 years since it started, and it has now named the 12 charities that will share this year’s money.

This is the 23rd tour. It runs for 20 nights, from Tuesday 24 November to Wednesday 23 December, the Argus⁶ reported. Every penny raised is split equally between the 12.

This year’s list includes Brighton & Hove Museums, Charlotte’s Bag, Clock Tower Sanctuary, FareShare Sussex & Surrey, Martlets, MindOut and the Raystede Centre for Animal Welfare.

A few of them, as the Argus describes them: Martlets, a hospice charity for Brighton and Hove, gives end-of-life care at the hospice or in people’s homes. FareShare passes surplus food on to charities that support vulnerable people. MindOut is an LGBTQ mental health charity in Brighton offering counselling, advocacy and peer support. Charlotte’s Bag raises money for research into glioblastoma, a rare and aggressive brain cancer. Raystede shelters and rehomes abandoned animals.

The bus began in 2003, with Brighton & Hove Buses, Martlets and the Argus Appeal as the original partners. Two charities, Martlets among them, get a share every year, and the other 10 places are chosen afresh.

You can give online through the Santa Bus GoFundMe page, or at a business collection point. The list of collection points will be published soon, and the company wants more of them. Shops, cafés, pubs, restaurants, offices and community venues can sign up. Each gets a collection pot, posters and social media banners, and is listed on the Santa Bus page.

“Reaching the £500,000 mark would be a fantastic achievement and we’re encouraging businesses across the city to help make it happen,” Matthew Ashton, managing director of Brighton & Hove Buses, said in the company’s announcement.