In early January we were sad to hear that Don Box was missing from his home. Don was a long time supporter of Reading Family Aid and was married to Vera Box who has been involved in the charity since the 1970s.
Sadly, despite a huge search by the police and many members of the public, Don was found a few days later in someone's garden having passed away.
He worked for Great Western Railways all his working life, being involved in many major projects, including the Channel Tunnel. Once he retired, Vera got him working for Reading Family Aid. He audited our accounts for many years and worked as one of the van men in the Christmas Toys and Teens project. Once he was no longer up to lifting and carrying the huge boxes and bags he was 'promoted' to be in charge of the rubbish!
He was always happy and smiling and full of stories about his working and family life. We shall miss him. 

A large bulging envelope plopped through the letter box and inside were a large number of beautifully designed thank you cards from children at one of the schools we support. Thank you so much for sending them.

Many had lovely comments and drawings inside.

After a hiatus of two years, the 2022 Christmas Toys and Teens was the first time post-covid that we have done a full toy appeal with Donation Points around town and asking everyone to donate toys.
We were optimistic that donations would be as fantastic as they previously were but were slightly worried that, given the cost of living increases, many people would find it difficult to be as generous as in previous years. We were also slightly worried that the number of children that we would receive requests for would go up, for the same reason.

and over £2,000 in other donations from various individuals, businesses and places of worship - thanks to you all too!

Huge thanks also to one of our sponsors this year: Berkshire Freemasons for their huge number of donations of toys which they brought to the hall on the Sunday afternoon.

and to Caversham Vehicle Hire for the free loan of two vans - we couldn't do it without you.

Thanks to all our Donation Points for encouraging people to donate, in particular to Roc Search who made the largest cardboard box imaginable!

Huge thanks to all the anonymous individual people of Reading who took so many toys and gifts to the donation points and those of you that donated them to all the amazing clubs, businesses, schools and places of worship.
​To mention a few of those organisations here: Woodley FC, Calcot FC, St Andrews School Pangbourne, St Andrews Church Sonning, St Peters Church Caversham, Cellnex, Clarify, Tilehurst Methodist Church, The Heights Primary School, The Oratory Prep School, Moulsford Boys Prep School, Allianz in Guildford, The Christchurch Centre in Henley, Fourbears Books in Caversham who organised a reverse Santa, Landmark Estate Agents, Chiltern Nursery,  ......
​Thanks to you and all the other anonymous donators - you are all AMAZING!

and to Reading's Deputy Mayor, Cllr Debs Edwards for coming along during Toy Project week. She said she was disappointed at how few donations there were on the tables when she visited. 

And thanks to all those organisations who donated tables for us to use including Caversham Hall, 89th Reading Scouts, St Anne's in Caversham and St Barnabas in Emmer Green.
​And thanks to the anonymous but amazing church hall where we do all the work each year, who donate the use of the hall for the whole week for nothing. Thank you all.

Checking, sorting and packing the toys would not be possible with out the help of our army of volunteers, many of whom turn up year after year to help and some who came from far and wide, even Birmingham and Cardiff! Thank you to everyone that came to help all 98 of you!

And thank to all the vanmen who collected and returned the tables, collected all the donations from the donation points, the companies, schools and places of worship that had in-house collections.

and delivered the 736 packed sacks to 97 family representatives, travelling 530 miles around Reading in total.

During Christmas week, our committee members were invited to spend the afternoon at Coley Park Community Centre with the founder and leader of Grassrootz charity, Kelvin Husbands, as well as some of the Grassrootz volunteers and the young people they work with.
As a thank you for the support they have received from Reading Family Aid’s Toys and Teens appeal this Christmas, Grassrootz organised a wonderful afternoon of homemade cakes, teas and coffees and board games. Five of our committee members attended and a wonderful time was had by all.
The Grassrootz team told us about the weekly youth clubs they run (in Whitley, Caversham Park Village and Coley Park) and their mentorship programme, whereby the older teenagers mentor the more junior members. It was clear to us that Grassrootz’ role in the personal and professional development of Reading’s young people is what makes it so special.
Grassrootz has been supported by Reading Family Aid in the past with toys and equipment for the children at their junior youth clubs, and we were thrilled to be able to help again this year.
Now, more than ever, young people need support and both Reading Family Aid and Grassrootz work with the aim of putting smiles on children’s and teenagers' faces.

​Reading Family Aid’s Toys & Teens Appeal, sponsored by The Chronicle, Reading, will be ending on 4th December.  The charity has had an unprecedented amount of requests for presents this year, for nearly 3,000 children, as parents “struggle to keep houses and feed their children.”
The charity’s Toys and Teens Appeal, sponsored by The Reading Chronicle, aims to plug the gap, but one volunteer of 20 years said the rising demand was “scary”.
 
“Everybody thinks Reading is quite an affluent place but there’s huge areas of deprivation and the gap between those that have and those that haven’t seems to be growing. It’s pretty bleak,” said Ruth Perkins, from RFA.
 
“The number of children has just gone up and up. When I was first involved I think there was about 500 and we are just under 3,000 this year. That’s 3,000 Reading children who otherwise wouldn’t get any Christmas presents so it’s quite scary really.”
She continued: “It’s always a bit stressful – will we match up the number of donations against the number of children?”
The Toys and Teens appeal has gathered support over the years from its incredibly kind donators including Big Yellow Storage, Tescos, Roc Search, The Masons, Logicalis, MacBeths and Connect Reading .

If you work for a company based in Reading or the surrounding areas, consider setting up a toy collection in your office, like Cellnex and many others have done, or donating to one of the donation points across Reading.
Please visit our Toy Donations page for details of how to donate and what can (and can't) be donated. There is also an online GoFundMe appeal. 
Money donated buys presents for age groups that aren’t typically provided for, like teenagers, as well as batteries for toys, and is an easier way to donate for those that can’t access donation points.​
But be quick! Time is running out!
Thank you.   ​
 
​​

Reading Family Aid was at Tesco on Portman Road last Saturday receiving toys, gift and money donations from the generous Tesco shoppers.  

John Skyes Foundation released the following press release this week announcing their donation.
 
Reading Family Aid which has been established for over 50 years is the latest charity to receive a Covid-19 Relief Fund grant from the John Sykes Foundation.
 
The charity, which run the annual Toys and Teens Appeal fundraiser, were visited by John Sykes, Founder and Chair of Trustees, who presented a cheque of £1,000 to provide toys for Children up to 16 in the Reading area, to Ruth Perkins, Trustee and Laura Windisch, Project Manager, both from Reading Family Aid. Also in attendance was Deputy Mayor of Reading Debs Edwards and Karl Nixon from Big Yellow Storage.

This morning John Sykes from the John Sykes Foundation presented Reading Family Aid with a cheque for £1,000 for toys for this year's Toys and Teens Appeal. Established in 2014 by John Sykes, the John Sykes Foundation is a UK registered charity which has been established to improve the lives and well-being of individuals and communities within the town of Reading where there is an element of disadvantage. 
This will allow Reading Family Aid to buy many more toys for the nearly 3,000 children that have been referred so far. On behalf of these children we'd like to say a Big Thankyou to the John Sykes Foundation. John was accompanied by Cllr. Debs Edwards, Reading's Deputy Mayor who has been a long time supporter of Reading Family Aid. Also a big thankyou to Big Yellow, one of our main sponsors, for hosting the photo shoot. 

​Reading Family Aid’s Toys & Teens Appeal continues for 2022, sponsored by The Chronicle, Reading.  The charity is requesting its generous supporters donate new and nearly new toys at 28 donation points across Reading and the surrounding areas. These toys and gifts will be distributed to under-privileged children in Reading and the surrounding area, who otherwise wouldn’t receive a present this Christmas. 
The appeal has gathered support over the years from incredibly kind donators ranging from schools, churches and individuals to companies. One of these is Roc Search, with their HQ in Reading, who for the past 5 years have encouraged all 100 of their employees to take part.

If you work for a company based in Reading or the surrounding areas, please consider setting up a  toy collection in your office, or donating to one of the 28 donation points across Reading. Any donations you can give will make a huge difference to a little person’s life this Christmas.
Please visit our Toy Donations page for details of how to donate toys and to find out what we can (and can't) use. We are also running a GoFundMe appeal again. The money raised buys new presents for age groups that aren’t provided for, typically teenagers, batteries for toys and is an easier way to donate for those that can’t access our donation points or don’t know what to buy.

Thank you.   ​

Reading Family Aid’s Toys & Teens Appeal continues for 2022, sponsored by The Chronicle, Reading.  The charity is requesting its generous supporters donate new and nearly new toys at 28 donation points across Reading and the surrounding areas. These toys and gifts will be distributed to under-privileged children in Reading and the surrounding area, who otherwise wouldn’t receive a present this Christmas. 
Through social workers, schools and organisations, Reading Family Aid are able to identify children who are the most in need of support from the Toys and Teens Appeal each year. One such group is Grassrootz, a collection of volunteers who run youth clubs for underprivileged children in Reading. The group was set up by Kelvin Husbands, when he noticed there was no provision for young people after school. To keep these young people out of gangs and give them somewhere to go, Kelvin has now set up three clubs across Reading.
He said “The cost of living crisis has really affected some of our young people. We have noticed lots of children coming to the club hungrier than before. We have bread and spreads available in case a child is hungry but in recent weeks we are going through double the amount of loaves”.
When talking about the Toys and Teens Appeal Kelvin said “This appeal is important, especially this year with the cost of living rising. Christmas is an extremely difficult time and whilst most of us look forward to this time of year, lots of families feel under an awful amount of stress and pressure. The expectations and demands on families are huge and this is an additional pressure that some of them feel really guilty about as they can’t give their children the Christmas they would like to.  Last year, after receiving presents from this appeal, the children we support said it was the best Christmas they’d ever had”.