Crews’ party funds go to kids’ charity

FIREFIGHTERS have donated £1,000 to a Dundee charity after Covid-19 cancelled their annual children’s Christmas party.

Crews at Blackness Road fire station handed over the pot of money to Togs, a local children’s charity which distributes donated clothing to those in need in the city.

The money was collected through the station’s weekly bonus ball competition and is usually saved to put on a Christmas party for children of the station’s firefighters and staff.

Leigh Esposito, a firefighter for 17 years with the station’s blue watch, said: “We would usually put the money towards food, a magician, games, Santa, but we couldn’t do any of that this year.

“The money was just sitting there in the pot and it would have carried onto next year but we thought, why not put it to one of the local children’s charities?

“A few people suggested Togs and we really valued what they do so are happy to donate it to them.”

Jillian Smith, volunteer and board member at Togs, says it’s unusual for the charity to receive such a large cash donation and said that some of the money will be put towards new pyjamas for kids.

She said: “It will make a huge difference to us – winter referrals go up every year regardless but there is so much additional pressure on families this year.

“We’re busier than we’ve ever been and are receiving at least double the amount of referrals we did last year, due to people losing their jobs, furlough, all the pressures of Covid-19.”

Jillian said clothes for ages three to 10 are the highest in demand, particularly boys’ clothes, and they are seeing more requests for teenage clothing than ever before.

Meanwhile, families’ food budgets are also being affected, says Ken Linton of Dundee Foodbank, which serves referrals throughout the city.

Ken said: “We’ve been busy. We sent out 135 parcels last week, which feeds around 300 people, and expect it to stay around that figure for the next few weeks.

“That’s similar to last year. The amount of referrals we get depends on the weather – if it’s a colder winter then we will have more because people spend more money on heating.

“But the difference is that there are a lot of new community food larders which weren’t there last year so it is possible that there are more people relying on food parcels than are showing to us.”