Fifers are being urged to dig deep to help a group of Freuchie mums ensure there are no disappointed youngsters left empty handed this Christmas.
Katherine Hope, Hilary Haman, Sarah Brown and Charlotte Lever — with eight children among them and another on the way — stepped in to establish the Gift of Christmas Appeal Fife following the demise of Fife’s Spirit of Christmas appeal which folded after a highly successful two years.
It has the same aim, to bring a bit of festive cheer to children who are in need and might otherwise receive very little this Christmas Day.
But with only days to go to the deadline, the group said the demand greatly exceeded supply.
The initiative, which has nearly 10,000 members on Facebook, has 43 drop off points across the whole of Fife.
But gifts have to be handed in by Sunday December 11 — or before depending on the opening hours of drop off points — so time is running out fast.
Katherine said: “Although we are seeing donations coming into the drop off points now, they have been coming in pretty slowly, although we are hoping that this will improve between now and when they close.
“Sadly, requests for gifts for children in need across Fife currently massively outweigh the number of donations which we have received so far.
“We have received over 2,500 requests for gifts for children, yet we currently have considerably more gift bags labelled ‘mum’ than we do labelled ‘girls 9 to 12 years’ which is our largest single group for requests.”
They are really short of gifts in several age brackets — from nine to 12, 13 to 16 and 16 plus.
The six to eight and one to two age groups are “not doing particularly well either”, she said.
But the donations received so far have been great, Katherine added, with lots of cool ideas and time and effort put into choosing the right gift.
“I was chuckling to myself when I spotted a whoopee cushion in one of the gift bags earlier this week and was wowed by a large lava lamp in another.
“It is hard not to image the faces of the children opening the gifts when you see them all sitting there in the gift bags waiting to make their way to their recipients.
Some workplaces are preparing a gift bag instead of doing an office Secret Santa, and people are also donating instead of sending Christmas cards.
In Dunfermline Riddell Project Management is picking up the tab for an annual event and asking clients to donate the fee instead.
And Sky customer contact centre in Dunfermline is also donating gifts via a large internal collection.
How to donate
If anyone is thinking of donating, visit the group’s facebook page for information .
Those donating should not wrap the gifts and only donate brand new items.
Gifts should be placed in a gift bag and labelled with the age and gender of the intended recipient.
Kirkcaldy:
Remax Estate Agents, Nationwide, Ceramic Tile Warehouse, Changes Salon, Urban Barbers,, Rejects Department Store, Kirkcaldy Fire Station.
Glenrothes:
Remax Estate Agents (within Morrisons supermarket), Nationwide, The Makery, Fife Chiropractic Clinic, Spar, Glenrothes Fire Station.
Cupar;
Remax, Scottish Deer Centre, Nationwide, YMCA.
Leven:
Mayfair Hairdressing, Optical Express, Leven Library and Fife Council Customer Service Centre, Nationwide.
Methil:
Methil Library and Fife Council Customer Service Centre, Methil Fire Station.
Charlestown:
The Scottish Lime Centre Trust, Charlestown Workshops.
Dairsie:
Dairsie Mini Mart.
Cowdenbeath:
Hallmark, Cowdenbeath Local Office.
Dunfermline:
Ceramic Tile Warehouse, Nationwide, The Coop Food Store, Lochview Cattery, Furniture Plus, Nationwide, Dunfermline Fire Station.
Freuchie:
Lomond Hills Hotel.
Pittenweem:
Pittenweem Chocolate Company / The Cocoa Tree.
Elie:
Fife Holiday Homes.
Falkland:
Falkland Centre for Stewardship.
Lochgelly:
Lochgelly Fire Station.
St. Andrews:
Nibbles & Giggles, Nationwide, Starbucks.
Dysart:
Furniture Plus.
Inverkeithing:
Akela’s Den.
