Last week I helped pack stockings for children who may otherwise have faced a bleak Christmas.
My day as an elf was a job both exhilarating and harrowing.
Help For Kids – the Dundee charity supported by the Evening Telegraph – has dispatched huge gift bags stuffed with toys, books, chocolates and other presents across the city.
They are for children whose family circumstances meant they may have had little or no gifts as their friends wake up to stockings bursting at the seams tomorrow.
Dundee people showed true Christmas spirit by donating thousands of gifts and cash at drop-off points around the city and beyond.
If you were one of them, thank you.
The donations all passed through the Help For Kids grotto, filling stockings packed by a team of elf helpers almost as quickly as they arrived.
I spent a day as an elf, and seeing the grotto was both heart-warming and heart-breaking.
Vanloads of toys, books and more kept coming.
It gladdened the soul to see just how many people had answered the call from Help For Kids annual toy appeal.
Even amid the cost-of-living crisis and with the expense of their own Christmas shopping, folk had spent a few extra quid to bring a smile to the face of a child they did not know.
From NERF guns to Peppa Pig
And almost as quickly as we could sort them and put them on the shelves, the donations were being pulled out again to fill the next set of gift bags.
There were NERF guns galore, there were My Little Ponies, there were dinosaur figures, there were Peppa Pig plushies. Any toy you could think of, it was most likely in that grotto.
For teenagers, there were make-up kits, aftershave, hair-styling tools, headphones.
And each child and young person on our nice list gets not just one, but several of these items in their stocking.
Schools from around Dundee – which is where the bulk of referrals come from – had told us the ages and genders of children they deemed in need of a Help For Kids gift bag.
Us elves did our best to select appropriate items we hope they will like.
And when we finished packing for each school there were rows of bags, ready to be loaded onto vans for delivery.
Rows.
These bags of Christmas joy were at the same time a heartrending illustration of the extent of poverty in some parts of the city.
Dozens of bags for single schools
There weren’t just a few going to a single school, there were dozens.
For people like me lucky enough to take it for granted that there will be gifts under the tree and and turkey on the table, it’s difficult to comprehend that so many children aren’t in the privileged position mine are.
Help For Kids’ Christmas toy appeal is perhaps its most high profile campaign but it’s far from the only support this vital charity provides.
I’m a trustee of the charity and several times a year our board approves grants to help disadvantaged children. It might be to pay for cosy jackets for the winter. Sometimes it’s to ensure pupils can go on their school residential trip. Or it might be for a specialist bed for a disabled child.
But whatever it is, it makes a life-changing or life-enhancing difference for the kids on the receiving end.
Besides the obvious benefit, Help For Kids toy appeal raises the profile of the charity, aiding its vital work throughout the year.
So if you supported Help For Kids toy appeal, thank you.
Have a Merry Christmas tomorrow and take a moment as you unwrap your own gifts to think of the child receiving yours.
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