Charity Shoe Boxes

freebie_junkie

This year, I'm going to do a small scale shoe box appeal in my town for the charity I work for. They will be for young people in 2 young people's hostels. One is a mother and baby hostel and one is a single young person's hostel. The young people are aged 16-25. They're horrible places to live and the housing lists are huge. I'm already collecting things like toiletries, cleaning stuff, non-presishable food, baby items etc. As well as these essentails, I will include little treats such as sweets, toys for the kids etc. Later in the year, I'm goign to approach local businesses and publicise the project to encourage local people to donate boxes or items to put in the boxes.

jackieglasgow

I stuck this in the other shoe box thread, thought it might find an audience here, too!
Hi, I don't know if this will appeal to anyone, but my family make these boxes every year, and my MIL who is incredibly talented with the sewing machine, used to make her shoe boxes into doll's beds.

She would make a sort of bassinette cover for the box with a little bed cover and pillow for the doll to match (so it looked like a moses basket without the hood) and buy a wee doll from the pound shop, and put some of the normal essentials like toothbrush, crayons or whatever in, she simply then folded the cover back in over the contents. So whatever wee girl got that for her Christmas was not only getting a dolly but a bed for her, too! It was a great idea, and they looked so cute, and were free! She just recycled old stuff from her children, mine, or picked up wee cheap bits from the charity shop which could be resewn into a bedcover. I'm not a great seamstress myself, but am trying it this year, so we'll see how it goes!

HTH Jackie
PS just remembered the cover had elastic around the bottom to hold it in place!

lauzjp

Is there a list anywhere of places that would like shoeboxes of goodies? I don't want to google and then find that the stuff is just going to be wasted by people who don't need it / sold on a car boot or something.

I'm especially interested in donating to the forces; / people that are on their own.

thinking about it, why don't Age Concern do something like this - I used to volunteer for them; Christmas dinner was nice. But I'm sure there must be many more people that are on their own that they aren't in touch with - you know how proud some people can be to ask for help... surely a charity could / ask the council to go through the electoral roll and see who is on their own?

ps - having just been to the postpals website - I'm going to contact them to see if I can be an elf!

sparklegirl_3

my mam and i do a shoe box appeal every year we really enjoy it
we started collecting as saw a video about a gentleman probably in his 20s from romania, he was being interviewed and was asked what his most prize possession was, he went away from the screen and returned with a shiny box, the box was about 10 years old, it was a shoe box from the shoe box appeal, of course the box was now empty but had kept it because of the shinny wrapper, he said it was the best thing he had ever received
These boxes make such a difference to kids.most have never seen gifts or shinny wrapping paper
i love the pound shop for hats, gloves, socks,etc, living in places like romania, it can get extremely cold,small cuddly toys to cuddle,choose crayons instead of felt tip pens ( keep longer) dominoes, tooth brush,soap,note pads,hair clips, small cars,sweeties ( not chocolate) coloured pencils and a pencil sharpner, colouring books,you can also knitt hats and hand puppets, operation xmas child have some lovely patterns to follow
i tend to look for items that will last a bit longer so avoid real cheap toys and items that they can use everyday, many dont have the essentials we take for granted on a day to day basis
oohh i cant wait to get shopping!
keep the ideas coming guys
x

thevicster

lauzjp wrote: »

Is there a list anywhere of places that would like shoeboxes of goodies? I don't want to google and then find that the stuff is just going to be wasted by people who don't need it / sold on a car boot or something.

I'm especially interested in donating to the forces; / people that are on their own.

thinking about it, why don't Age Concern do something like this - I used to volunteer for them; Christmas dinner was nice. But I'm sure there must be many more people that are on their own that they aren't in touch with - you know how proud some people can be to ask for help... surely a charity could / ask the council to go through the electoral roll and see who is on their own?

ps - having just been to the postpals website - I'm going to contact them to see if I can be an elf!

If you want to donate to the forces, check out this link; http://www.supportoursoldiers.co.uk/xmasparcels2008homepage.html
HTH