Published: Thursday, 24th December, 2009 2:00pm

Letter: Thank you for a Christmas to remember

by Correspondent

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Star Letter

To all the people of Reading who donated gifts to The Chronicle Toys and Teens Appeal, thank you for putting a smile on the faces of Reading's children this Christmas!

Everyone at Reading Family Aid would like to say a huge "thank you" to the thousands of Reading people who donated thousands upon thousands of toys, gifts and tokens to this year's Toys and Teens Appeal.

We had a huge response - the best ever - and most of the items were brand new or of very high quality. We handled about 10 transit-van-loads of toys. All the items were loaded and unloaded at our storage facility, then re-loaded and unloaded at our hall, then sorted, chosen and packed up again.

About 550 sacks of toys were packed and delivered to around 1,300 Reading children who would otherwise have had no presents on Christmas morning.

In addition a number of nurseries and after school clubs benefited from some of the larger items that were left over.

Thank you too to everyone who got involved and helped with all the work in the hall. It is an exhausting and emotional experience but most who come to help think that it is a wonderful experience and want to come again the following year.

It is a huge amount of work and it always amazes us that it all gets done in six days - plus, obviously, all the work that some organisations and individuals do beforehand.

We could not do it without the generous sponsorship of The Chronicle and that of all the other organisations who contribute hugely, in particular Rabbits Van Hire for the loan of the vans, Austin Logistics for the collection of the toys from the collection points, Access Storage who donate a room, all the collection points (too numerous to mention here) and all the businesses, churches and schools who organise their own collections. It really is quite amazing.

Thank you once again for helping to make it a huge success.

We would like to wish you all a Very Merry Christmas and a Happy and Healthy New Year.

The Reading Family Aid Committee