​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.   ​
 
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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”.  

On a sunny but chilly late October day Reading Family Aid had a stall in Henley market place to publicise the addition of the Christchurch Centre on Reading Road in Henley to our list of Donation Points for the Toys and Teens appeal. 

With the help of volunteers Celia and Jo, leaflets were handed out and the word was spread. ​

Connor Roughneen, Founder and Managing Director of Roc Search, and his team have launched their in-house toy appeal and have joined the growing list of Toys and Teens Public Donation Points in Reading.
They have been supporting Reading Family Aid for many years and their staff twist the arms of their friends, family and colleagues in other branches around the world to donate to the appeal.
Ruth from the RFA committee went along to help to launch the appeal and tell the staff about Reading Family Aid and why the Toys and Teens Appeal is so important to Reading's disadvantaged families.

Reading Family Aid were awarded £1,000 by Tesco Community Grants towards buying toys for this year's Toys and Teens Appeal.
Sallie from our committee has been busily choosing and buying a range of toys for teenagers, babies and specialist items for children on the autistic spectrum.

These toys will be added to the hopefully huge number of toys that are currently being donated at the nearly 30 donation points around Reading.