More than 1000 children across Hamilton will be waking up to an array of wonderful gifts on Christmas morning – thanks to the “astounding generosity” of the amazing donors supporting this year’s Hamilton Advertiser toy appeal.
Thousands of individual gifts ranging from toys, games and books to vouchers, sweets and pyjamas poured into the town’s Salvation Army headquarters where volunteers once again took on the mammoth task of sorting through the piles of presents – with businesses, churches, community groups and local residents all getting behind the festive campaign.
Salvation Army captain Wendy Leisk said: “This year’s appeal has been wonderful – everyone who came into the room where all the presents were assembled just said, ‘wow’ and were astounded by the generosity.”
Big-hearted members of the community all across Hamilton have been handing over gifts at collection points for the past six weeks, and with many organisations also arranging their own toy drives, there were hundreds more handed in on last week’s final day of the appeal as items were sorted ready to be collected and distributed by staff from South Lanarkshire’s social work department.
Wendy told the Advertiser: “There were people coming in all day; the doors just never stopped and it was pandemonium in a lovely way – businesses we didn’t even know were collecting for us were coming in and there were so many big donations.
“People went far beyond my expectations and their generosity is incredible; it surpassed anything we expected. Staff from businesses had been out and spent money buying gifts to donate and we had people arriving with toys and presents throughout the day as our team of volunteers arranged everything into age categories for the social workers to choose from.
“Over 1000 children have been helped by this year’s appeal and we’ve been able to provide gifts for all the children who there were requests for. We’ve also had some last-minute requests plus some late donations, so we’re able to help with those and also distribute extra items through local schools.”
The appeal supporters once again included Cadzow Street restaurant Rocca, who generously donated £1000 as well as collecting a huge host of gifts from customers.
Staff posted on the popular venue’s Facebook page: “We are so grateful for your kindness as we know times are hard as ever, and we’re thrilled to be able to donate £1000 thanks to our valued customers keeping us busy. Thank you for helping our community once again.”
Blantyre Old parish church hosted PGL of Lanarkshire Middle Ward’s annual carol service, which was attended by more than 200 people and included a toy drive producing hundreds of generous gifts for youngsters of all aged.
An array of donations was also collected by organisations including Happy Feet Nursery, Mecca Bingo, Harvest Church, Impact Shopfitters, Record UK, Starbucks Hamilton, Hays Travel and many individual donors – such as customers and staff at Asda in Hamilton who filled six trollies with gifts for the appeal.
Toy appeal co-ordinator Leona Greenan extended her thanks to Wendy and the Salvation Army team as well as to all the businesses and individuals who supported the 2024 appeal, and said: “Donations were in the thousands and we covered Hamilton area, Lanark and Cambuslang & Rutherglen social work this year.
“We had over 1000 children on social work lists who will all wake up to some wonderful gifts on Christmas morning now thanks to the generosity of Hamilton Advertiser readers, businesses, churches and more; we also helped several charities with donations of toys and also for children at some of our local schools.”
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