The manager of Wood Street Mission is encouraging people to make last minute donations for their Christmas appeal as they’re struggling to find presents for children aged 0-2 years and teenagers.
Manager, Des Lynch said : “We struggle a lot with finding gifts for children aged 0-2 years and for teenagers.
“We understand that a lot of teenagers don’t really want toys or chocolate so we are hoping for some toiletry sets and jewellery to be donated but we welcome all kinds of gifts.
“We helped over 3,000 children last year with over 11,000 presents so hopefully we’ll have similar numbers for this year too.”
Wood Street Mission is a charity that helps children and families across Salford and Manchester who are living in poverty. They have been running for nearly 150 years and are determined to change the lives of children across Greater Manchester with their projects.
The charity was established in 1869 and is the oldest charity in the region.
Last Christmas, the charity distributed 11,000 gifts to over 3,000 children across Greater Manchester.
In addition to their annual Christmas appeal, they have a number of different projects such as Family Basics and SmartStart.
Family Basics provides families with clothes for children, bedding as well as toys and books. All these items can be vital in improving children’s well-being.
View this post on Instagram
Harsh but true stats. 822 children needed our support last month #Manchester #Poverty
The SmartStart project helps to promote the importance of education for a child both to themselves and their families.
It provides children with brand new school uniforms at the start of summer, well ahead of the new school year in September. In addition to this, Wood Street Mission give children equipment such as rucksacks, pencil cases and books.
Des added: “Something as simple as giving out school equipment can really change the perception that a child has of school.
“If they have a school jumper and a pencil case, then it can make their first day of school a lot more bearable as they won’t feel as left out from the rest of their class”.
Wood Street Mission have been collecting toys for their Christmas Appeal since early November.
We’re collecting donations for the Wood Street Mission’s ‘Christmas Shop’ to help provide presents for children across #Manchester and #Salford. Find out more about their festive quest at https://t.co/bxpnCL2Bac #Christmas #charity @WoodSt_Mission pic.twitter.com/Rw2uUSiQ4L
— Aptus Utilities (@AptusUtilities) 12 December 2018
Toys that are donated for the Christmas appeal should be brand new and not wrapped.
This is because the ground floor of the building is set out as a shop so families are able to come in and decide what their children would prefer.
Des, who has been working for the charity for over 20 years said: “Even though it is set out as a shop, none of the items are ever sold to families and they never will be”.
Families are able to choose three presents per child through a traffic light system. Red labels are for expensive or branded toys, yellow being medium sized and green being smaller toys.
The deadline for donating presents for the Christmas appeal is Friday 14th December however, people are still able to donate toys and items of clothing throughout the rest of the year.
There are currently two charity vans on road collecting donations and there will be a three-day over-spill of distributions early next week.
Our Manchester Salford Inner Relief Route project team are proud to support @WoodSt_Mission‘s Christmas Appeal, and have generously donated toys and games just in time for Christmas? pic.twitter.com/gkpo6wGqSi
— Dawnus Construction (@DawnusConstruct) 11 December 2018
Wood Street Mission is located on 26 Wood Street, M3 3EF and is open from 8.30am-4.30pm. For more information please call: 0161 834 3140
Recent Comments