Community – Gift Boxes – Festive Season 2020
Supporting 480 families, young people & children in Roehampton and Wandsworth
A lovely thank you from Roehampton BASE Youth Club members! We could never have done this without the incredible support from neighbours, friends and family who’ve donated toys and wonderful Gift Box goodies. Thank you!
Oh what a Quiz Night! We had fab quizzers, lots of fun and laughter, and raised an amazing £807.50 from this online event. Thanks to the generous support from Putney Rotary, the quizzers and everyone who participated.
The Challenge – 2020 Community Love
Putney Rotary Club wanted to bring smiles to the faces of disadvantaged children in our community this festive season, 2020.
Gift Boxes
Our campaign was inspired by Rotarian David Palmer’s work (Rotary Club of Barkingside) with the KidsOut charity Christmas Boxes campaign where toys to the value of £80 were packed into thousands of boxes and sent to children in refuges across the country this Christmas.
After a discussion within our Community Team, we decided we wanted to help vulnerable families within our local community.
Families on our doorstep have had a really tough time this year, losing their jobs through the Covid-19 pandemic, and struggling to make ends meet.
For those families who live from paycheck to paycheck, Covid-19 has added a huge amount of pressure to already stretched finances.
President Louise reached out to Karen Horsford, co-founder and owner of the Wandsworth Boxing Club, to see if she knew of a local community contact we could partner with, doing work on the ground in Roehampton. Karen put us in touch with Avon, Pat and Maxine from Wandsworth Council’s Roehampton BASE Youth Club.
Yasmin was Quizmeister at the Lockdown 2.0 Quiz Night which raised over £800.
We put the word out, appealing for toys and goodies for our Gift Boxes, and the response was absolutely wonderful!
We collected gifts from loads of neighbours and friends from Putney to Battersea, Sutton to Claygate! We contacted shops in our local community and they were so generous too!
Neighbours and friends also found lots of children’s clothes to donate, which are in great condition.
We were also able to give a car full of clothes and baby bottles and formula to the “Young Mums” initiative by Roehampton BASE and help Eastwood Nursery in Roehampton with toys and presents for their kids who attend the nursery.
Our heartfelt thank you to our local Community for their kind donations – we couldn’t have done this without everyone pulling together in “service above self”. Well done Wandsworth!
If you’d like to support us in 2021 either as a volunteer, to donate goodies we can give out, or make a donation, please don’t hesitate to get in touch, as this is now an annual club project.
The families were delighted to receive beautiful toys for the festive holiday season – smiles on the children’s faces and happy hearts for those made to feel special. An awesome team effort!
The Solution – Gift Boxes for our community
Putney Rotarian, Yasmin, led the campaign. She and the team contacted local shops, neighbours and friends to contribute, and gathered everything together…
Then came the sorting of a room full of donations before getting together at Wandsworth Council’s Roehampton BASE to put together all the Gift Sacks for 489 families, young people and children.
Huge thanks to everyone for coming together to make our vision a reality:
SHOPS
- The most generous donations came from Waitrose & John Lewis Partnership through their “Give a Little Love” Campaign from East Sheen, Southside, Richmond and Putney donated an incredible £741, and we were able to buy lots of wonderful toys and games in John Lewis, Kingston with their vouchers. Thank you so much.
- ASDA Roehampton Vale thanks to Community Champion, Jasmine, who donated 100 boxes of delicious mince pies.
- Kid’s Stuff, Putney Exchange donated 100 stocking fillers for our Gift Sacks – via Stacey, Putney Manager.
- Tesco, New Malden gave us a £50 voucher.
- Trinity Hospice, Putney donated toys and books for kids.
- Sainsbury’s, Putney gave us a £25 voucher and Lego merchandise.
- Box Fit donated free water bottles.
- The Royal Marines donated kit bags.
- Cardfactory Putney gave us gift bags.
- Smiggle, Putney gave us discounts on stationery and bags.
- The Works, Putney gave us a discount on great toys and books with a discount.
We are so grateful for all our local partners’ contributions, which made this Gift Box Campaign such a success. We couldn’t have done it without your generosity.
Collaboration is essential to bring projects to fruition. Putney Rotary would like to thank the team…
- Our amazing partners – Avon, Pat and Maxine from Social Services and Roehampton BASE, Wandsworth Council provided the location for us to pack and distribute the gift boxes, as well as identified families we could support.
- Karen Horsford from Wandsworth Boxing Club identified young people we could support, and obtained donations from Box Fit and The Royal Marines.
- Friends, neighbours and family – special thanks to Denise and Johnny in Claygate for gathering a car load gifts and toys from their neighbours.
- Amazing load of children’s clothes’ donations via Amanda, thank you!
- HUGE thanks to Putney Rotarians, Yasmin, Lu, Pauline, Ati, Paddy, Colin and Matt for their efforts in making this campaign a reality, and collecting from their respective neighbourhoods.
- Also thanks to Putney Rotarian Jonathan for his IT assistance at the Lockdown 2.0 Quiz.
- And Nic who helped with the Lockdown 2.0 Quiz and gift box spreadsheets, and to both Nic and Jasmin for storing so many toys!
Quiz night – 21st Nov
Join us for a fab night of trivia!
2020.11.21 Paddy – lady Qurantino
Lady Quarantino! Paddy wins best dressed at he Lockdown 2.0 Quiz
2020 Gift Boxes – Nic helping with spreadsheets
Family of Rotarians are priceless! Thank you for your help Nic.
