Lochaber fills more than 500 boxes for Blythswood

Blythswood Care has issued a ‘heartfelt thanks’ to everyone who helped with its 2021 Shoe Box Appeal.

Thanks to people’s thoughtfulness and generosity, it was possible to send out a total of 82,900 boxes - of which more than 544 were from Lochaber - to the Eastern European countries of Albania, Bulgaria, Hungary, Kosovo, Moldova, Serbia, Romania and Ukraine before Christmas Eve.

These boxes were sorted and checked for customs and loaded on to lorries in the charity’s sort depots.

The boxes filled with donated items of essential toiletries, stationery and warm clothing have Christian literature i.e. bible story, teenage testimony, and biblical text calendar added suitable for the age of the recipient.

The charity’s partners in the Eastern Block then distributed the boxes to schools, hospitals, orphanages and care homes, and to households with very low income where children are poorly fed and clothed and are often barefoot.

Lochaber co-ordinators for Blythswood Care, Kenny and Barbara Matheson, told us: ‘It has been another tremendous effort by volunteers and donors making the total number of boxes sent out since 1993 to 2.56 million.

‘We in Lochaber are so thankful that our total of 544 boxes played a small part in making this year’s appeal such a success.

‘Renewed thanks to all who contributed by

Kenny Matheson, pictured with volunteers for the 2016 collection for Kosovo, says Lochaber residents are always very generous.

donating monetary and knitted gifts, toys, toiletries etc and to the shops who kindly kept shoe and boot boxes for us as without their help we would have nothing to put the gifts in.’

For further information, please contact www. blythswood.org.