Group is doing its bit to ‘Brighten up 2021’
Care workers are helping brighten up the lives of some of the most vulnerable this Christmas after setting up a Facebook raffle page.
The ‘Brighten up 2021’ page was the brainchild of East Kilbride community nurse Clare McDonald and her niece, Clydebank carer, Jennifer Mardon.
It started as a raffle page to help charities, in what has been a challenging time for so many.
But the page mushroomed and Clare and Jennifer have been able to make a number of donations on a larger scale than they ever expected.
And now they are helping to make sure families in need have presents under the tree this Christmas with a donation to a Castlemilk-based charity, The Jeely Piece Club, who support those in the wider area, including Rutherglen.
They provide play and learning opportunities for children up to 12 years regardless of status or circumstance.
Profits from the ‘Brighten-up 2021’ page are used to buy gift cards and presents which Clare will donate to the club and kind locals have also been handing over items to Clare, which she has added to the ever growing pile of presents.
Clare said: “When Covid hit everyone really began to struggle. I saw folk doing online raffles and things like that so I decided to do that and use any profits to donate to charity and just help cheer people up.
“I teamed up with my niece and set up the ‘Brighten-up 2021’ Facebook page which just started really small.
“We didn’t want to ask too much from folk given the situation people were in, maybe having lost jobs due to the pandemic. But before we knew it, the page just started to grow – we now have 1400 members.
“With a lot of support and as the page took off I started putting up bigger prizes like a holiday to Turkey for two, and other bigger items like £250 worth of gift vouchers for M&S and Morrisons, which would really brighten up folks’ lives.
“We then found ourselves with more profits than we expected and had to decide how to use them.
We have done a lot of things, from donating piles of Easter eggs to handing over £400 to a food bank and helping the charity Mary’s Meals.
“And we also sponsor children over in Malawi, so we have done lots of things with the money.
“Now, with it coming up to Christmas, we wanted to give as much as we possibly could to children and started looking about to see how we could help.”
Clare contacted the Glasgow Spirit of Christmas appeal, which supports families in the city and surrounding areas and they supplied a list of charities.
From there she decided to donate to the The Jeely Piece Club and has been overwhelmed by the response.
“The response I have had has been fantastic,” she added. “People at my work have been sharing the page and my TV room is just full of gifts which I am going to get to the club next week. I can’t thank folk enough.
“The Jeely Piece Club help folk from throughout the wider area so we thought it was a great charity to give to and they do amazing work.”