Children's charity "overwhelmed" by Christmas gift donations

Thursday 17 December 2020

Islanders' generosity has been praised by a local children's charity after islanders came out in their hundreds to ensure dozens of disadvantaged children in Jersey have a very special Christmas.

Kim Noble was in for a shock after a Facebook request for gift recommendations snowballed into an outpouring of gift donations.

As Operations Co-Ordinator at Sandpiper CI, which sees her deal with donations, she was asked by children's charity Variety, which Sandpiper supports, if the company would be able to help arrange gifts for 35 children in need.

After a look around town, grabbing clothes from George, teddy bears and unicorns, as well as a hoard of M&S sweets, Kim realised something: “I got all this together, and then I thought, I haven’t really got anything for teenagers.”

However, there was just one snag – in her own words, she “didn’t have a Scooby Doo what teenagers want nowadays!”

Pictured: Teddies, toys and chocolates were collected for younger children.

Seeking advice, she posted on a local Facebook group, explaining that she was collecting for Variety and asking islanders to recommend some good gifts for teenagers, without asking for anything.

But within two hours, she had more than 200 messages offering to help - a huge outpouring of local goodwill she had not anticipated.

Even the following day, after Kim had been up into the early hours replying to everyone to thank them for their kindness, her inbox was still inundated with “enormous” offers.

Throughout the week, the office was flooded with presents - so many, she said, that "I couldn’t get into my office!"

"Then I went into the property office and that was full… Then I went downstairs for a coffee and realised suddenly, there was even more stuff!"

Pictured: The SandpiperCI employee's post was met with an outpouring of generosity from islanders.

The donations included vouchers worth hundreds, make-up, nail bars offering treatments, barbers offering haircuts, hair tongs, Ugg boots from a surf shop, and more toys, books, sweets and chocolate for the younger children.

Kim said that many local businesses and island charities that Sandpiper had previously helped had all rallied behind the cause.

One example was the Good Companions, for which Sandpiper annually provides Easter and Christmas dinners to 200 of their members.

Kim said that all the staff there had gone out and bought presents having seen the Facebook post, with the elderly staff going as far as to make their own rag dolls for the children.

And the presents continue to pour in ahead of the charity's final collection on Monday.

Reflecting on islanders' "incredible" generosity, Kim said: “'Thank you' is such an inadequate word, but thank you I do.”

Variety's Chief Barker Sandra Auckland said that, thanks to islanders' goodwill, the charity would be able to provide Christmas gifts to even more children than initially hoped.

Pictured: Variety's Chief Barker, Sandra Auckland said the charity was "overwhelmed" by islanders' generosity.

“We have been overwhelmed by the generosity of the people of Jersey who have sent in so many gifts. It was originally our goal to provide 35 vulnerable children with Christmas gifts, but the response has been so fantastic that we are going to be able to help give many more children a special Christmas this year."

She added: “We have lots of people to thank, in particular Sandpiper, Bambola Toys and JJ Fox who have all made wonderful donations. However, it is the people of Jersey who really stand out.

"It has been such a difficult year for everyone, which makes this amazing response even more heartwarming."

Pictured top: Kim said that when she went into her office, she could barely get in due to the amount of presents that had been donated.