Police launch festive appeal to provide children with Christmas presents

Christmas is coming and Fenland residents are being asked to support their community by donating gifts to local children in need.

Each year, due to a variety of reasons, there are children who will wake up on Christmas Day with nothing to open.

Social services teams work hard to try to provide a gift to all the children they work with but this isn’t possible without help from members of the public.

Inspector Ian Lombardo, from the Fenland Neighbourhood Policing Team, said: “I’m pleased to announce that despite the current pandemic, we will still be running our Christmas gift appeal for the third year running for children across the Fenland district, albeit we will have to do things slightly differently.

“Donations will be split between our local social services and The Salvation Army, both of whom will make sure all donations go to children who, without your help, would wake up on Christmas morning with nothing.

“This year more families are finding themselves facing hardship and my team and I want to do all we can to make sure as many children as possible in Fenland have a present on Christmas Day.

“Past appeals have been extremely well supported by the community but I appreciate this year has been tough for a lot of people, therefore if you are in a position where you can make a donation, I would ask you to consider doing so.”

The appeal will run from Monday (16 November) through to Thursday 10 December, with donations being accepted at either March or Wisbech Police Station.

To comply with the current measures in place nationally, anyone dropping off donations must wear a mask inside the station and all donations must be sealed within a bag such as a carrier bag or bin bag.

Insp Lombardo added: “We won’t be accepting donations any later than 10 December this year in order to put safety measures in place such as sanitising items and keeping them isolated before being passed to their recipients.

“Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, we will have to ask that only new items are donated to the appeal this year and are not wrapped. The only second-hand items that can be considered, such as the ones we received last year, are electrical items such as games consoles and tablets which can easily be wiped down and disinfected.

“I must also add that unless you are passing one of the stations on an essential journey, please do not make a specific trip to us to drop off donations until the end of lockdown, or when current measures have been lifted.”

Donations could be toys, puzzles, arts and craft sets, board games, sports equipment such as footballs, reading books, colouring books, male and female toiletry sets or beauty sets such as nail polish and make-up.

The age ranges asked for donations are:

0 to 2 years

2 to 5 years

5 to 10 years

11+ years

Last year saw donations ranging from a woman who brought in her lifetime collection of teddy bears, to a six-year-old boy gifting his own birthday presents.

A young mother with two children under the age of five was incredibly touched to receive presents from the scheme, she was really struggling to find money, was having to rely on food banks and had been worried she wouldn’t be able to give her children anything to open on Christmas Day – your donations made sure this didn’t happen.

Another family who were supported were two young girls who had fled domestic violence with their mother and were still trying to settle into a new life. Their mother was struggling with finances as her husband previously had control over all the money, again, this was another family who were supported by the kindness and generosity of the local community.

Insp Lombardo said: “Each year I have been completely overwhelmed by the generosity shown by the Fenland community. Your donations will go directly to children in the local area, so thank you in advance for your help and support in what is a particularly tough time for us all.”