Answer our gifts appeal
Help make Christmas merry
It’s that time of year again when we ask our generous readers to help those in our community facing tougher times than most this Christmas.
The Stirling Observer Give A Gift Appeal has been running since 2008, receiving and distributing donations of toys and gifts for sick, disabled, needy and disadvantaged children and young people at Christmas.
Collected at our offices in The Craigs and with the generous support of a host of drop off points across the area, the gifts are distributed via a wide range of local charities, large and small, with the aim of ensuring no local child goes without on Christmas morning.
Among the charities and good causes which help to distribute the gifts are Stirling Young Carers, Aberlour, Home-Start Stirling, PLUS, Cornton Vale Family Hub, Stirling Women’s Aid, Cultenhove Opportunities, Start-Up Stirling and Stirling Council social services, along with a number of others.
The appeal also aims to respond to any oneoff approaches from organisations which deal with children or young people they feel may be facing a difficult festive season.
It also exists to ease the pressure many charities face over the festive season and allows them to put resources they may otherwise have had to use for gifts into their other areas of good work.
Observer reporter Kaiya Marjoribanks said: “The appeal is quite an undertaking for us but over the years has become something we know is much appreciated by the charities.
“As the scale of the appeal has grown it would have been easy to forget just what it means. But some of the feedback we have had from the charities has been extremely humbling.
“One story which really resonated with us was when we heard of a little boy who had never had a present before and didn’t know he had to take the wrapping off and there would be something inside.
“For many of us that seems unimaginable but it is a stark reminder that, for whatever reason, there are still children out there who need everyone’s support.
“Life is hard enough for many families, but there can be little more gut-wrenching than dreading Christmas because you know your children may have nothing from Santa on Christmas morning because you are struggling to even feed or clothe them.
“Some children find themselves the innocent victims of family circumstances or their environment and only have these charities and organisations to depend on.
“For others the gifts are a way of letting them know they are not alone and that other people do care.”
If you would like to organise a collection for the appeal via your business, workplace, school or group, would like to be one of our official drop off points, or would like more information, please contact the Stirling Observer on (01786) 451110 or 459417 or email: news@ stirlingobserver.co.uk or kaiya.marjoribanks@ trinitymirror.com.
We will aim to photograph and feature as many collections as possible in the Observer over the festive season. Anyone who would like to donate a gift can look out for details of our drop off points in forthcoming editions or drop them in to the Observer office.