Two charities launch present appeal for the lonely this Christmas
A Christmas presents appeal for needy families and those alone during the festive period has been launched by two Smethwick community centres.
St Albans Community Association and Dorothy Parkes Centre's Christmas Give a Gift Appeal, supported by Sandwell Council, will help ensure lonely people have a gift to open on Christmas Day.
Tonia Flannagan, chief executive officer at St Albans Community Association said: "We had a tremendous response to this campaign two years ago and we want to make it even better this year. In our previous appeal we had over 300 gifts donated which were distributed to those children who spent Christmas in hospital and to older people who do not have any family or receive gifts.
"We were amazed at the generosity of local people, and we hope the community works together to make this year another success."
Dorothy Parkes Centre chief executive officer Robert Bruce believes the festive period brings its own set of challenges for a lot of people.
He said: "Christmas is the season of goodwill and given all of the challenges in the country now with Covid, the increase in cost of living, and reduction of benefits, this ‘magical’ time of year could be extremely difficult for many people. We hope that our appeal can ensure that we put smiles on many people’s faces this Christmas."
The centres need help from local residents, schools, emergency services and businesses and are asking for donations of new, unwrapped toys and gifts which will be distributed to a wide range of people in the week before Christmas.
Donations can be dropped in at both centres and other donation points across Sandwell before Monday, December 6, when they will be wrapped up by volunteers.
St Albans Community Association was established in 1984 by Smethwick residents to provide advice, support and services for the local community at St Albans Church, St Pauls.
Dorothy Parkes was born in 1644 and left a large legacy when she died in 1727 to build a church and church hall in Smethwick, in the 1990s the church hall was converted into a community centre named after Dorothy. And a separate board of trustees was formed to look after the Dorothy Parkes Centre.
