The generosity of the public is incredible... Santa’s sack is bulging with loads of presents
Andrea Lambrou
“I don’t want to ever run a toy appeal – but we’re always going to have to.”
As an army of volunteers begin to collect Christmas gifts for children in need across East Kilbride and Avondale, Salvation Army toy appeal coordinator Carol Gillies reflected on the hardship facing those families, whose only hope for some festive cheer on Christmas morning is to rely on the kindness of strangers.
Last year the Salvation Army Toy Appeal, run in conjuction with the News, put smiles on the faces of 500 disadvantaged kids.
However, with more and more poverty-stricken families turning to food banks and charity organisations to survive day to day, Carol fears that number is only going to rise.
She said: “You always have to prepare for the same if not slightly more, while hoping for less, because you want families’ situations to have gotten better – but you have to accept that there may be more.
“I don’t want to ever have to run a toy appeal but we’re always going to have to.
“With the introduction of Universal Credit, it’s that delay for people receiving benefits that causes real hardship.
“And it definitely does have a knock-on effect because anyone who has hit crisis point now has the additional stress of Christmas.
“We help older children who are 16 and living in flats on their own, children that have had to go into care for various reasons, parents who have been made redundant and grandparents who have unexpectedly had to take on the care of a child; hitting financial problems they never expected and just before Christmas – what do they do?
“It must be awful to be in that position where you’re choosing between heating your house, doing the Santa thing or feeding your kids. You can’t possibly stretch all the way.
“People are really embarrassed and upset that they have to come to us but the Salvation Army is seen as very neutral and people will come here before they trust many other places because we are not a political organisaion and we’re not caught up in policies.
“In light of everything else going on, we would expect the numbers to be even higher this year. It potentially, sadly, will be another 500 at least and we need to be prepared for that.”
The Lindsayfield mum-of- two has been involved with the Salvation Army for 30 years and will this year be heading up her ninth toy appeal with the local branch.
When Carol began running the appeal in 2009, Christmas gift donations were delivered to 100 local children. But as the credit crunch took hold, in just one year that figure rocketed to 350 and continues to rise year on year.
“To see the numbers rising is heartbreaking,” added Carol. “Very often the families can get the big present but it’s the little bits, the stocking fillers and the smaller presents that they struggle with.
“We aim to make Christmas bigger with all the bits and bobs that they need.
“We have a fabulous set-up and more and more people are getting involved every year. It’s not just people from the church, it’s community-based which is superb.”
As in previous years, all the toys, gifts and cash collected in our toy appeal will be distributed to underprivileged kids living in the East Kilbride and Avondale area.
The toy appeal gives to children aged from birth to 18 years and donations of toys, selection boxes, books, games, cash are gratefully accepted.
What we ask is that toys or other donated items are new as children who benefit from the appeal do have the same hopes and expectations as children in any other family.
And we ask that the gifts are unwrapped so parents are able to see if the gifts are appropriate for their child.
Donations can be handed in up until Monday, December 10 to the Salvation Army Citadel at 25 Mid Park in The Murray.
Drop-off times are Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays from 10am to 12noon. Donations can also be dropped off at The Entertainer and Costa Coffee in the Plaza mall and the Bank of Scotland in Princes mall.
“We never say no to donations but realistically we need the vast majority of them by December 7,” said Carol.
“The generosity from the public is incredible.
“We could not do this without public donations and people are really invested in the children and go out their way to help a child they don’t even know.
“Quite often the schools will send me an email to say they’ve passed the gifts on and the families are just so relieved that the pressure is off them.
“It really moves me every year, it means a lot.”