Last chance to make a vulnerable child smile in Fenland this Christmas
It's the final day to donate to Fenland Police's Christmas Gift drive
Christmas is around the corner and it's your last chance to make a child in Fenland smile this festive season.
Each year, due to a variety of reasons, there are children who will wake up on Christmas Day with nothing to open.
Social services teams work hard to try to provide a gift to all the children they work with but this isn’t possible without help from members of the public.
Inspector Ian Lombardo, from the Fenland Neighbourhood Policing Team, said:
“I’m pleased to announce that despite the current pandemic, we will still be running our Christmas gift appeal for the third year running for children across the Fenland district, albeit we will have to do things slightly differently.
“Donations will be split between our local social services and The Salvation Army, both of whom will make sure all donations go to children who, without your help, would wake up on Christmas morning with nothing.
“This year more families are finding themselves facing hardship and my team and I want to do all we can to make sure as many children as possible in Fenland have a present on Christmas Day.
“Past appeals have been extremely well supported by the community but I appreciate this year has been tough for a lot of people, therefore if you are in a position where you can make a donation, I would ask you to consider doing so.”
The appeal has been running throughout November but today (10th Dec) is your last chance to donate with presented being accepted at either March or Wisbech Police Station.
To comply with the current measures in place nationally, anyone dropping off donations must wear a mask inside the station and all donations must be sealed within a bag such as a carrier bag or bin bag.
Insp Lombardo added:
“We won’t be accepting donations any later than 10 December this year in order to put safety measures in place such as sanitising items and keeping them isolated before being passed to their recipients.
“Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, we will have to ask that only new items are donated to the appeal this year and are not wrapped. The only second-hand items that can be considered, such as the ones we received last year, are electrical items such as games consoles and tablets which can easily be wiped down and disinfected.
“I must also add that unless you are passing one of the stations on an essential journey, please do not make a specific trip to us to drop off donations until the end of lockdown, or when current measures have been lifted.”
Donations could be toys, puzzles, arts and craft sets, board games, sports equipment such as footballs, reading books, colouring books, male and female toiletry sets or beauty sets such as nail polish and make-up.
The age ranges asked for donations are:
0 to 2 years
2 to 5 years
5 to 10 years
11+ years