Amazon donates £50,000 to Peterborough children's charity's annual Christmas campaign making wishes come true

Amazon has donated £50,000 to a Peterborough-based children’s charity’s annual Dear Santa Christmas campaign – which gifts presents to children from low income families whose lives have been affected by crime.

Embrace Child Victims of Crime, which is based in Copse Court, Thorpe Wood, is the only national charity solely focussed on supporting children, young people and families who have been the victims of crime.

It is the third year in a row that Amazon has supported the appeal – donating £5,000 in 2020, followed by £10,000 in 2021, and now £50,000.

To mark the generous donation, Amazon employees and their families were invited to a special Christmas event at the Amazon Fulfilment Centre, in Kingston Park, on December 7, where they met Santa and his reindeers, and were given the opportunity to wrap a gift for the children supported by the charity.

Gareth Davies, site leader at Amazon in Peterborough, said: “Every child deserves to have a toy to enjoy at Christmas and it’s a pleasure to team up with Dear Santa once again for this year’s festive-giving campaign.

"The work done by the team at Embrace as part of this campaign is humbling and inspiring, and everyone at Amazon in Peterborough was keen to lend a helping hand again in 2022.

"Our team also enjoyed bringing their friends and families along to the wrapping event, which helped us get into the festive spirit while doing something important for children in our community.”

Dear Santa helps make Christmas wishes come true, as each child is asked to choose a gift up to the value of £35 which they would like to receive.

All of the gifts chosen by the children are added to they charity’s website for the public to buy for them. Last year, 1,463 children and young people received at least – ensuring they all had at least one present to open on Christmas Day.

Anne Campbell, chief executive of Embrace Child Victims of Crime, said: “We have been absolutely blown away by the support from Amazon which will enable us to provide gifts for a record number of children this year.

“The wrapping events were a fantastic opportunity to get whole families involved and enable children to help other children who may not be as fortunate as themselves. It was a magical evening and one we will not forget in a hurry and the children loved seeing the reindeers and Santa on his sleigh.

“The cost of living crisis means it will be a tough Christmas for lots of families this year but we hope these gifts will show families, who have suffered terrible trauma because of crime, that the true spirit of Christmas is still alive and there are people out there who care and want to help them recover.”

Here are some of the best pictures from the event at the Amazon Fulfillment Centre, in Peterborough: