As kids face crisis

Charity reaches out with vital help in hour of need

Yet many youngsters across Dundee and Perth can find themselves going without the daily essentials.

One charity aiming to make a difference to the lives of these children and young adults is Help For Kids.

Facilitated by Wave FM, the Overgate and the Evening Telegraph, the charity is managed by Stacey Wallace and has been running since June 2011.

By hosting fundraising events, the charity has supported more than 25,000 youngsters.

Recently, Help For Kids ran its most successful fundraising event yet – the Win a Wedding competition – which raised over £23,000.

Stacey and charity co-ordinator Hannah Kemlo spend their days planning and hosting fundraising events, running collections and going through applications to decide what money will be going where.

The charity helps kids who are disadvantaged through economic or medical circumstances, as well as helping them gain work experience.

Among the things the charity has provided to children are a specialist helmet, a wheelchair and horseriding lessons with Brae Riding School.

It has also provided money for youngsters to go on trips – sending one little girl to Disneyland, and organising a trip for terminally and seriously ill kids to the Over The Wall therapeutic recreation camps.

Children have been brought into the Wave FM offices, giving them the chance to learn about radio and become presenters for a morning.

Help For Kids had previously been one of the beneficiaries of The Boozy Cow, which donates profits to charity.

Excitingly, the charity has expanded by introducing 10 volunteer ambassadors, made up of local business people, who will support the charity for the next year. Each ambassador will host a fundraiser and attend a Help For Kids event.

Stacey said: “We are very lucky we have a huge support in Dundee and Perth with our connections.

“It’s a massive thank-you to them because we couldn’t do it with the support of everybody else. We’ve got so much support out there it’s unreal.

“It’s not all about poverty – we are here to help with any application, medical equipment, trips.

“A lot of people just think we focus on the poverty and a lot of people think we focus on kids, but we don’t – we help people right up to 18 years old.

“There are people who have no food, no bedding – people who physically just don’t have money for stuff.

“We did a bedcover appeal and got loads out of that because kids just don’t have cosy beds to sleep in at night.

“I didn’t used to think this happened in Dundee.

“You don’t realise that until you physically see the applications that come in. “It’s pretty overwhelming. “I think that’s the rewarding thing about it – you go home and you think, ‘I’ve helped that person’.

“It makes you want to do it. It is about the kids and I think that’s what we have tried to get across from the very beginning. “No two days are the same.” Hannah said: “It’s brilliant – the more people who know about us the more kids that we can reach out to and be able to help.”

The charity is always on the lookout for more volunteers.

Anyone interested can contact Stacey on 01382 653109.

YOUR childhood is supposed to be one of the most simple and special times of your life.