January 6, 2025
The 2024 Christmas Toy Drive was one to remember this year as we continued our tradition of helping organisations and families during the festive period.
The Toy Drive got off to a crazy start with a 6am visit to The Entertainer, who had kindly agreed to add 20% to whatever we spent. After hours of clearing shelves, and loading a huge Luton van, we had spent a whopping £8000 on toys! Then, thanks to a very generous donation of £500 by a recent competition winner, it was on to B&M to buy gifts for the older kids, a massive thanks to Susan for her generosity.
Whilst at the unit sorting the toys into piles for each organisation, Sid put out a plea on his personal social media channels, asking for donations so that we could purchase Selection Boxes to give out at the same time…24 hours later, with Matt having done the same, they had raised a staggering amount which was nearly at £5000!!
This then enabled the team to go out and purchase games consoles for the Teenage Cancer Trust Ward at St James Hospital, and also funded a package of gifts for each of the patients who were going to be waking up in Hospital on Christmas Day, as well as 1000 selection boxes! Still with funds left over, both Matts went and raided Boots for additional gifts for the older children, including aftershaves, perfumes and skincare sets.
As donations carried on rolling in, the team decided they would put a post out where members of the All Star Family could nominate a family they think would be deserving of some help at Christmas, and two deserving families were picked at random to be taken on a shopping trip where they could purchase gifts for their children.
In addition to the Toy Drive, we also ran the All Star Prizes Christmas Cinema day, at which 40 families came and watched the Christmas classic, Home Alone at a private screening at Odeon Cinema Deluxe in Leeds, taking the total for this years toy drive to just short of £22,000!!
These were distributed to organisations across Leeds, Wakefield, Pontefract and Castleford, and a huge heartfelt thanks goes out to the All Star Family for your donations and continued support, which enables us to continue to spread love and joy at Christmas and also to each of the organisations who worked tirelessly to help ensure kids all over West Yorkshire had the best possible Christmas.
The organisations we distributed to were:-
The Teenage Cancer Trust Ward (J94) @ St James Hospital, Leeds
Nowell Community Centre, Harehills
LS14 Trust, Seacroft
BITMO, Belle-Isle
Bramley Care Bears, Bramley
Chapeltown Youth Development, Chapeltown
Homeless Street Angels, Leeds
The Old Fire Station, Gipton
Airedale Foodbank, Airedale
Pontefract Foodbank, Pontefract
Castleford Foodbank, Castleford
