UPDATE: Prince William and Kate Middelton have launched a website (www.royalweddingcharityfund.org) where well-wishers are able to donate money to charities in honour of their wedding. The charities have been chosen by the couple, and many are Canadian.
It is natural that many Canadians, seeing them as members of our extended family, wish to share in William and Kate’s happiness by wishing to send a wedding gift. However, most of these gifts, many of which have been lovingly crafted, will never be seen by the royal couple. Instead, they will be auctioned for charity or end up in archives, at best possibly displayed in a future exhibition of royal wedding gifts. Quite apart from the impossibility of the Prince and his future wife using all these kind gifts, there are obviously also security implications for overseas mailing of packages to the Prince and his fiancée.
The best gift Canadians can give is a donation—of time or of money—to their favourite charity. In the case of money, ask the charity to send a card announcing your gift to William and Kate: you can provide them with the address given elsewhere on the League’s website. In the case of donating hours of your (and possibly your family’s) time to a food bank, soup kitchen, or other volunteer-dependent association, you can write the couple yourself and tell them that you gave this very special gift of time to such-and-such a need in your community. Nothing would better please them than to think that the Queen and Royal Family’s devotion to voluntary service is being carried forward in this way.
If you wish to give to a charity of particular significance to Prince William and Catherine, you might choose the Foundation of Prince William and Prince Harry, which is one of many ways in which William and his brother, Prince Harry, carry out their charitable work.
The Foundation of Prince William and Prince Harry
St James’s Palace, London
United Kingdom SW1A 1BS