The New Saints FC Foundation and TNS Football Club were recently approached to lend their support to a fantastic initiative being organised by local resident Stephanie Draper – entitled “A Christmas Gift” – which aims to provide local families, who may be struggling to afford Christmas this year, with a small collection of presents they can give to their children, writes Gill Jones.
Stephanie had originally approached us because she was aware of the reach we had through our number of social media followers, and initially just hoped that we would be able to mention the project and share her contact details.
However, those of you who follow us know that The New Saints FC Foundation already has a proud history of supporting local families through its free holiday activity provision which includes free healthy meals – these have now been running for four years, and were introduced to respond to the need we had identified of families sometimes struggling to afford the costs of feeding their families through school holidays – an issue we were aware of long before it was highlighted by the Marcus Rashford campaign – but a campaign which we are grateful for in terms of raising the profile of the issue locally of holiday hunger in both urban and rural areas. The Covid-19 pandemic has thrown in to even sharper relief the difficulties many families will be facing this Christmas.
Stephanie is appealing for new, unopened toys and gifts – appropriate for ages 0 to 16 years – to be donated to her project by being left at drop-off points across the area. She and her band of willing volunteers will then be co-ordinating collection, wrapping and distribution of the gifts to families in time for Christmas.
When we heard about Stephanie’s project, we wanted to be able to help in what ever way we could to support her work. We have therefore been able to provide her with additional local contacts who will be able to ensure all gifts collected are distributed to families who will benefit. We have also through our local contacts been able to introduce Stephanie to other organisations which will be able to support her appeal – through both donations and contacts.
We’re very pleased to be supporting ‘A Christmas Gift’ and would encourage those of you who can afford to donate a gift to a local child/young person to leave this at one of the drop-off points at:
Liar Liar, Bailey Street, Oswestry
Morrison’s, Oswestry
The Meat Man, Oswestry
Lawrence’s Direct (Mon Wed and Fri), Oswestry
St Martins Service Station
Other drop-off points are being organised – if you can offer Stephanie help, we urge you to support her. If you are aware of families who would also appreciate some help from the project this Christmas, Stephanie would also like to hear from you.
Good luck Stephanie with a brilliant project.
Visit the ‘A Christmas Gift’ Facebook page
