A Fife charity which helps brothers and sisters in care spend quality time together needs your help to give them a great Christmas.
STAR – Siblings Reunited is one of four organisations guaranteed £1,000 in The Courier’s Tokens For Toys cash giveaway.
Readers also nominated Tayside Children with Cancer and Leukaemia (TCCL), Dundee Bairns and Kinross-based Broke Not Broken to receive a boost in time for Christmas.
But one of them will receive double that and it’s up to you to vote for your favourite using the vouchers printed in our newspaper until November 26.
Today, Karen Morrison, who founded Cupar-based STAR, explains why the money would make a huge difference to the youngsters they work with.
“The £1,000 will be a massive help but to get the extra £1,000 would mean everything,” she said.
‘We want to make Christmas really special’
STAR helps around 100 youngsters a month but expects to be even busier over the festive period.
It was set up to maintain the bond between siblings separated by the care system.
Often children who cannot be with their parents are placed in different settings, which can add to their trauma.
But they can spend quality time together thanks to the work of Siblings Reunited.
“For most of them, the Christmas visit with STAR will be the only time they’re together during the period,” said Karen.
She added: “Many of them will have had no face-to-face contact before coming to us.
“On Christmas day when other brothers and sisters are waking each other up and chasing each other down the stairs to see what Santa’s brought, our children won’t have that.
“We want to make it really special for them.”
Tokens for toys cash will buy Christmas gifts
Karen and her team had already bought small stockings to fill with a few gifts to give the children during their Christmas visits.
But the £1,000 award means they’ll be able to get bigger stockings to fill with even more goodies.
We want to make sure every child that comes gets something from Santa.”
Karen Morrison, founder of STAR.
“Imagine what we could give them with £2,000,” she said.
“We are a very unique contact centre and the first of its kind.
“I think it’s quite powerful that this is the only Christmas visit that the children will have together.
“We want to make sure every child that comes gets something from Santa.
“We’ll have the stockings ready on the fireguard in front of the fire for them and they’ll get to open them with their own brothers and sisters.”
Separating siblings is a ‘double whammy’
“That’s what it feels like to them. That’s what they tell us often,” she said.
Based on a farm near Cupar, STAR allows brothers and sisters to maintain and grow emotional bonds.
They do this by meeting for a couple of hours each month in a safe and fun setting.
Children overcome their trauma by building campfires together, playing games in a wigwam and helping to tend to the vegetables and animals.