Sewa Day Nottingham and Communities Working Together (CWT) have worked together in another successful Christmas Shoebox appeal for 2023.
Former England cricketer and commentator Graeme Swann also attended the event in support of the community effort run by the two local charities.
The Christmas shoeboxes are distributed to adults and children who otherwise would not get presents. They contain hats, scarves, food, gifts and toys, books and toiletries.
Sewa Day Nottingham Lead Coordinator, Hetvi Parekh said “This is the third year our charities are doing this appeal. If we are completely honest, we are overwhelmed at the amount of donations we have received this year. We weren’t expecting so many donations because of the cost of living crisis, but we were proved wrong! A lot of volunteers this year included children and we are really proud to involve our future generation in the act of volunteering selflessly (Sewa)”.
The youngest donor was a 5 year old boy, Mylo, who used his piggy bank money to buy presents for the appeal. Mylo proudly came in with donations and also to helped to pack boxes.
The charities say that their volunteers are the life line of the appeal and they are blessed to have such a wonderful team. Over 70 volunteers were involved this year on an active basis collecting donations, packing shoeboxes, loading and unloading gifts and spreading awareness about the appeal.
The appeal has over 25 local businesses and over 15 schools involved this year in donating and wrapping around 1200 shoeboxes. The collections will benefit 22 local Nottinghamshire charities.
The teams at Sewa Day Nottingham and CWT say they are grateful to everyone who has donated and supported their appeal this year with a big thank you to the main sponsors for their continued support:
Rex Gooding Estate Agents, TLA Distribution, Fred Carr Garages, Royston and Lund, Ratchett Clothing and Peter and Jasbir Johal.
Please do get in touch with us if your charity needs shoeboxes in 2023 or you would like to volunteer for next year at [email protected].