Spread smiles with our Christmas Toy Appeal

It’s time to spread some festive cheer with our annual Christmas Toy Appeal.Your Local Paper and presenter Simon Rowe of Lynn-based Radio West Norfolk are again working together to ask for donated festive gifts.Christmas is an exciting time but it can also be daunting for families facing tighter than ever budgets.

But we know what a big difference a donated gift can make as last year’s appeal brought smiles to many faces with readers and listeners generously donating more than £20,000 worth of toys.This will be the fifth year of the appeal and lots of businesses and outlets have again come on board as toy/gift drop-off points.Donation trolleys and office doors are now open and the last chance to donate will be Friday, December 13 before all the gifts are gathered, ready to be collected by the charities and distributed in time for the big day. As usual, we are asking you to buy an extra toy or festive goody with your weekly shop and pop it in the special collection trolleys at the shops and businesses supporting our appeal which is again being sponsored by West Norfolk legal firm Ward Gethin Archer (WGA).We already know we need 1,133 gifts to fulfil all requests and more calls for support are still coming in. Simon said: “Here we go again, I can’t wait to begin another Toy Appeal.“It’s always humbling to see the generosity of the public when it comes to children who may go without.“If you’re able to grab just one extra toy, big or small when shopping it will make for a massive smile and that’s why we do this year after year, it’s all about big smiles on little faces.” YLP editor Sue Irving added: “YLP is proud to work alongside Simon and Radio West Norfolk with this appeal. It’s even harder this year to dig deep as we all know, but only if you can afford to do so, please support our appeal.“It doesn’t have to be an expensive toy, just a little something will make a big difference to so many.”We have already received donations from some businesses including BB Home Improvements, Learning Resources and Tri Anglia Home Design.We are asking for gifts/toys suitable for all ages from birth to 18 years which will be collected and delivered in time for Christmas via a broad range of West Norfolk charities and organisations. Toys can be dropped off at a host of outlets. In Lynn these are: The Alive Corn Exchange, Sunlounger Travel in the Vancouver Quarter, Tipsy Teapot, Norfolk Agents, The Eagle, Maid’s Head, Lynnsport and the White Horse pub at Gaywood.The Oasis at Hunstanton, Downham Leisure in Downham Market and A.T. Johnson in Downham’s Bridge Street are also drop-off points.Also, Premier Travel for those in the Swaffham area.Supermarket collection points are: Morrisons at Lynn, Downham, Fakenham and Wisbech; Tesco at Gaywood, Asda in South Wootton and Sainbury’s at theHardwick Industrial Estate in Lynn. Representatives of the Toy Appeal will also be on hand at some of the stores to receive your gifts during the appeal weeks.Our joint appeal has traditionally seen around £20,000 worth of gifts donated with more than that figure in some years.
We hope to keep up the good work in 2024.More than 40 charities – and the list is ever growing – have and will continue to benefit from the gifts you donate. These include the Pandora Project which helps
women and children who have been victims of domestic abuse, The Bridge for Heroes veteran’s charity, the Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Salvation Army, Freebridge Community Housing, Scotty’s Little Soldiers for bereaved armed forces children, Young Carers, Break and Broadland Housing Association to name just a few.