Christmas Toys & Teens Appeal continues!

Reading Family Aid’s Toys and Teens Appeal returns for Christmas 2021. However, due to Covid-19, the charity has made the difficult decision to run the project virtually again, like last year. 
 
Instead of collecting presents, winners of The Queen’s Award, Reading Family Aid, are asking their generous supporters from the local community to donate money on their Go Fund Me appeal rather than gifts.  This money will be used to buy new Christmas presents for deprived children in Reading and delivered directly to the organisations that help them.
 
Each year, the charity depends not only on the incredible support from the local community, but also on the tireless efforts of our volunteers. Our small army of volunteers work incredibly hard throughout the year, and believe it or not, we start to plan our Toys and Teens Appeals almost as soon as the years presents have been delivered.
 
One person who knows just how much these presents mean to these children is Ailsa Cottam, a Social Worker at Brighter Futures for Children.  Ailsa said: “A lot of the families we work with are living on a very low income with some on the edge of severe poverty, with the increasing price of living, Covid, and reductions in government benefits these families are at their most vulnerable. Reading Family Aid have brought happiness and hope to 100’s of vulnerable children at Christmas time and have worked tirelessly to ensure every child has a special gift and a smile on their face”. 
She continued: “One family I delivered Christmas presents to have recently fled domestic abuse and were living in a women’s refuge; the young family had to leave their belongings behind and relied heavily on the support from local charities to help them with essentials, food, milk, clothing etc. The children of this family were supported by Reading Family Aid who donated good quality gifts for them at Christmas time, the children were so happy and thankful to receive such wonderful gifts, it made a huge difference to the families moral who had been through overwhelming trauma.”
 
In 2020, the Toys and Teens Appeal delivered gifts to over 1,400 disadvantaged children in time for Christmas.  This year, please consider donating to this cause and share the below crowdfunding page on your social media.  Anything you can give, no matter how small will make a huge difference to these families at Christmas time.  Thank you. 
The fundraising page will remain open until 4th December, after which the funds will be used to buy presents that will be sent directly to organisations and distributed to deprived children across Reading. To donate, please visit the Go Fund Me crowdfunding page:

This year there will be just three pop up stalls opening to accept new toy donations across Reading:
- Sunday 14 November 11:00 – 15:00 – Big Yellow Self Storage, Rose Kiln Lane, Reading, RG2 0JZ
- Saturday 20 November 11:00 – 15:00 – Woodley Town Centre Precinct, Headley Road, Woodley, Reading, RG5 4JZ
- Saturday 27 November 11:00 – 15:00 – Tesco Extra, Portman Road, Reading RG30 1AW
  
Or to print out a poster and for more information, please see the website: www.readingfamilyaid.org.