This year we helped provide 360 disadvantaged kids from all over the West of Scotland with lots of great presents to open on Christmas Day, and it’s all thanks to you.
This was our third year in operation and without a doubt our most successful year to date. The response from our community in Govan and all across Greater Glasgow was incredible.
Thanks to the generosity of the public we were able to provide 360 kids from all over the West of Scotland with lots of great gifts to open on Christmas morning. The response was so great we were able to take on a few more charities that work with disadvantaged kids/families to enable us to reach those most in need.
This year we supported families referred to us from Children First, One Parent Families Scotland, Crossroads, Linkes, British Red Cross, Loretto Care and the usual charities we have worked with in recent years, like Glasgow South West Food Bank, Govan HELP and numerous schools/nurseries etc. We also get inundated with requests for support from social workers and health visitors and other professionals who work with vulnerable families which we gladly accept.
The breakdown of the 360 kids supported was 182 girls and 178 boys. Every year it is difficult to determine what the numbers are going to be, what gender and what age group will be most prominent. Our biggest challenge this year was the large number of older kids referred to our service. Fortunately we received a large amount of cash donations that allowed us to purchase items like tablets, perfumes, make-up sets, deodorant sets and aftershave sets.
For those of you who are familiar with our work you will already be aware that we don’t provide each kid with just one gift. They get a huge bag full of toys, games, stocking fillers, selection boxes, teddies and all sorts of other great things like bikes, play kitchens etc.
The number of donations we received was simply incredible. There’s no other way to describe it. It had gotten so big we had to hire a container to store all of it because it didn’t take too long for the Riverside Hall to start bursting at the seems with donations.
We received thousands of donations. There are so many great stories, so let me start with Govan and work out from there.
First up, The Old Govan Arms Celtic Supporters Club got in touch with us and pledged hundreds of pounds worth of donations. Agnes and her fellow members invited us down to The Old Govan Arms pub to collect their donation and we were blown away by what was waiting for us.
The great thing was Aggie had reached out to us and asked us if there was any particular age group we wanted her to focus on. Last year we got caught out by a large number of babies and toddlers referred so they focused on that age category and delivered lots of great presents.
Before any Rangers fans feel aggrieved, fear not, Rangers also supported us. We reached out to the Rangers Charity Foundation and they were only too happy help. They brought a huge donation and then brought even more stuff a few days later. What I love about this one is Davy who runs the Riverside Hall has an office that is so pristine and organised. He messaged me to say Rangers had came with their donation and his office was packed with toys. I couldn’t stop laughing. Anyone who knows Davy and how organised he is will be laughing.
Then there was Govan Health Centre. They also made a great donation to the toy bank once again this year and it was dropped off by these two lovely ladies.
Two of Govan’s local football teams also donated to our project this year. Harmony Row donated this load of selection boxes (which was greatly appreciated as we always need plenty of those).
Another local Govan football team, the Pirie Park YFC 2006’s did the Santa Dash this year and raised an incredible £400. They used that money to buy lots of great presents for the toy bank and dropped them off to us. Many thanks to Scott and Debbie Gray and all the parents and kids for their great effort.
During the early stages of the project I got a call from a lady named Jackie Barnes who worked at Diageo in Shieldhall. As a Govanite she heard about our project and phoned me up, wanting to help. We got talking and she said she wanted to help and will do what she can. I was fortunate enough to visit her and her colleagues at their Shieldhall site and joined them for Christmas dinner, told them about the toy bank and how it all worked. I was so overwhelmed with their generosity. I literally left there with a car full of toys. They also did a raffle and raised an amazing £400 which they also donated to the project. It was great to be able to meet the staff and it was also great that Jackie accepted my invite and came to visit us whilst the project was in full swing.
This is another great story. I said I’d start from Govan and work my way out but this one takes us to Azerbaijan. Yes, you read that correctly. Govanite Ewen Bickerton was working away in the Central Asian country when he read about our appeal. He read our appeal and from half-way around the world made a great donation to the project. He sent us a lovely letter as well. I got permission to post the letter on our social media page and it was also covered by the Evening Times. It’s not often you get a letter and donation from Azerbaijan. It was such a wonderful gesture. Ewen’s son appeared with the donation and letter and said he had been told to bring it along. We were quite stunned when we seen how far it had came.
One of Govan’s best groups, the Govan Youth Information Project (GYIP) made a great donation of toys this year.
Since the beginning of our project Southside Radio Cars have been fantastic supporters of our project. Like last year, they donated £240 worth of Primark vouchers. We allocated them to the babies referred to our project. When in conversation with the likes of One Parent Families Scotland and the British Red Cross, they told us about some of the people they were supporting and there were a few examples of mothers and there babies who had nothing at all. So we allocated the gift vouchers to these people.
Glasgow Clyde College NQ Level 5 Childcare class, taught by lecturer Karen Jackson, had a collection for the toy bank and donated £200 worth of toys. It was such a lovely gesture and great to see the future carers of children going out of their way to help support less fortunate kids at Christmas time. I think it’s safe to say the future looks great for the child care sector if they are an example of the quality of carers coming through.
This year, not only did the 7th Clyde Scouts in Cardonald have a collection and donate lots of great toys to the toy bank, they also came a long to help us organise our donations into relevant categories of boys/girls and age groups. They also helped us make up the first load of gift bags. Many thanks to Mandie and the kids for your support, it was greatly appreciated.
We would also like to thank Louise and the staff at Westfield Medical Centre for their donation to this year’s project. Hopefully we will be linking in with them next year to support any vulnerable families they are working with.
This year we received an email Katie and Gillian who work at MCSU Santander and they delivered lots of great presents that they and their work colleagues had collected for the toy bank.
Another organisation that has supported us every year is Variety Scotland – The Children’s Charity. Each year they provide lots and lots of great presents to the kids we support. Once again their generosity this year was overwhelming and greatly appreciated.
This one is a great story. Our partners, the Glasgow South West Food Bank, messaged me to say a chap named David from the Coop had got in touch with them about donating toys. The food bank don’t accept toys (because they deal directly with us) and they referred David onto us. The staff at all the Coops across Greater Glasgow and their customers had amassed over 400 toys and David and the team brought them all to the toy bank, two vans full!
We were contacted by Julie Griffin from Glasgow Spirit of Christmas who had lots of fantastic toys for us. We went and collected them from her and she told us about the amazing work her organisation does.
Fiona Tennant who runs her own cake business called “Fi’s Fancies” (check it out on Facebook) contacted us saying she was holding raffles and using the proceeds to purchase toys for the toy bank. This was such a lovely gesture and to go to so much trouble to support less fortunate kids was quite exceptional. Fi was very successful with her raffles and delivered lots of great toys she purchased.
Another group that reached out to us was the East Pollokshields Out of School Care Team. Jackie Love had contacted us saying they were collecting toys for the toy bank. They then brought 22 gift bags full of wonderful gifts for the kids, ranging from cinema tickets, aftershaves and great toys.
We also were contacted by Steven Bryce. Steven runs a valeting company and they had collected lots of fantastic toys/gifts and wanted to donate them to the toy bank. We received this donation with great thanks. I personally gave that pram to a parent and when they realised they were getting it for their little girl they were so grateful saying her girl was going to love it.
Many thanks to Jennifer Paton, Shuggie and wee Katy for raising £100 for the toy bank. Your efforts are greatly appreciated.
Scottish Enterprise have also supported us every year and they pitched up once again this year with donations of vouchers, cash and toys. It’s great to see those who have supported us each year continue to do so.
We are so grateful to receive a wonderful donation of toys and £236 from Turning Point Scotland.
We also have to give a special thanks to Fiona Hay and her colleagues at SAS in Glasgow. Every year they have donated lots of great gifts to the toy bank. This year they focused on older kids and donated lots of great perfume, aftershave and deodorant sets. I don’t have a photo of Fiona’s donation (if you’re reading this Fiona and have a photo, send me it via the toy bank Facebook page so I can add it in). We would like to thank you all at SAS once again for your support, It is greatly appreciated.
The above can also be said to the staff at the Southern General Hospital. I don’t have photo of your donation but once again you supported us this year and we are truly grateful. If you guys have a photo please also send it in to us via our Facebook page and I’ll add it in.
We would also like to thank the Evening and Overnight District Nurses in Renfrewshire for their brilliant donation. They have also supported us each year of the project.
We’d like to thank Govanites Danny and Patrick O’Neill for their donation of toys and £50. Also, a huge thanks to John Cork and Jess Galloway for your donation, and to my friends John Gray and Billy Donohoe. To those of you who purchased gifts online and had them sent to the Riverside Hall, from Amazon, Argos etc, we thank you
There are of course the hundreds of individuals who pop in to donate to the toy bank. Many often say “it’s not much” but if you follow our Facebook page, you see all of the “not much’s” add up to a lot, and this enables us to reach as many kids as we can and as far as we can.
We got some photos of kids who donated. Everybody loved this one. This is wee Sian . Sian had written to Santa asking him if she could get a present to donate to the toy bank so the kids who don’t get much can get a present. Sian popped in with her donation…
A young fella named Zak also popped in with a donation for the toy bank…
Pat and family also made a great donation…
There are literally hundreds and hundreds of individuals who donate to the toy bank. The vast majority don’t want to give their name or have their photo taken. We thank you for supporting our project.
There is also another vital element to our success and that’s raising awareness. Many thanks to Stacey Mullen of the Evening Times for covering our project and publishing our story in the newspaper. This always makes a huge difference and we thank you.
We’d also like to thank Conor Reilly and STV for their coverage of the toy bank on STV Glasgow’s Live at Five show.
We must also thank Fiona Winchester from Global Radio. She did a piece on the toy bank that played on Capital FM, Heart FM and Smooth Radio. A nice touch to that was that a headteacher from a Govanhill school was upset after having distraught parents in her office saying they wouldn’t be able to get their kids anything for Christmas. The headteacher then went home. She got up for work the next morning and Fiona’s piece played on the radio. She contacted us when she got into work and we were only too happy to support the families she had encountered. Another great wee story from the 2017 project.
We’d also like to thank Glasgow Live. Their online coverage on Twitter and Facebook helped boost the profile of the toy bank and we thank Christina O’Neill for her great article that captured the 2017 project perfectly.
Also, we got a visit from my namesake, the BBC’s John Beattie. John popped down to the toy bank and did a piece for his BBC Radio Scotland show. Thanks for the support, John.
And finally, the one and only Sunny Govan Memories. This Facebook page is just awesome. They are always there to raise awareness of great charitable projects I pursue and always more than happy to help raise awareness to their almost 10,000 followers. You know who you are and you know how much we appreciate the support!
I’d also like to thank my colleague Dr Murray Leith at the University of the West of Scotland for his support in helping us raise awareness of the project. I’d like to thank Frank McAveety for thinking of our project and allowing us to get a great donation from the Emmie Smillie Foundation. And to all of our friends and family, and people who shared our appeals, posters, news articles on social media, we are very grateful for the support.
That brings me to all of the volunteers who make it all happen. Many thanks to the usual gang, Sarah, Theresa, Sam and Claire for their endless commitment to the project. Many thanks to Matt Kerr, Sharon and Eva for their support (it’s brilliant having a friend and volunteer that has a van). Many thanks to Sharleen, Andrew, Aggie, Billy, Susan, Carol, James, Pamela, Sky, Anne Marie, Joshy, Robbie, Paula, Lisa, Danny and everyone else who popped in to help us.
A special thanks to the Riverside Hall staff once again this year. They provided the container and for much of the project they are the ones who take in all the donations in the early stages and store them. They deal with the initial inquiries when people phone looking for me. We appreciate all of these efforts and they don’t go unnoticed, so thanks to the boss Alison and her team, Davy, Angela, Siobhan and Martin for all your efforts.
At the end of the project we were left with a few toys. So we took them to the Glasgow Children’s Hospital Charity and donated them. They were more than happy to receive the donation.
Our team gave out the little bits and bobs we had left over to kids in Govan. It was just little things like aeroplanes, bubbles etc…
I think that’s about it. It’s taken me 3 nights to piece this together, so forgive me if I have missed anyone. If I have, please feel free to message us on the toy bank page and I will be only too happy to add you in.
So in total we helped 360 kids this year. It was such a great effort by everyone involved. Collectively you all made the 2017 project a huge success. I wish you could all see the looks on the parents’ faces when they pick up the gift. You would see how much it means to them that you helped support them and saved their Christmas. We helped kids all over the West of Scotland. From West Dumbartonshire to Rutherglen, from the Gorbals to Galston, from Bellshill to Saltcoats.
Referral forms received for 2017
We’ve no doubt we’ll be back in again for Christmas 2018, so make sure you are following the Community & Beyond Toy Bank Facebook page to keep up-to-date with our project.
From everyone involved in the toy bank, we thank you for your support. It always feels like saying thank you is never enough.
Here are more photos we collected throughout the project.
And that was it for another year…
John Beattie 