We want to thank all our amazing supporters. Without your help we would not have been able to put smiles on 1.297 children’s faces at Christmas. With 8 items or more in each bag that means that we handled over 10,000 donations - a phenomenal amount and we know that this year will be even busier. We honestly could not do it without your help and support, especially with the restrictions imposed on us by Covid.
Unfortunately, though, we will be unable to accept pre-loved, opened donations in future.
We are a very small team working to very tight schedules in the run up to our Christmas deliveries. Every second hand toy has to be cleaned, regardless of how clean it looks, we have to check that it works, make sure that it’s safe to use, count all the pieces (you would be surprised how many jigsaws we get with one or two pieces missing) and sometimes a box repair is needed. If we didn’t do all this we run the risk of disappointing children on Christmas morning, which none of us wants to do.
All this cleaning and checking takes up so much time and means that we sometimes are unable to meet our delivery deadlines, so we have made the difficult decision to take new toys and donations only. We will still be happy to take second hand books, however, as long as they haven’t been written in.
Again, thank you so much for walking this path with us - we could not do it without your goodwill and generosity.
God bless
Chris and the whole team.