Fife Gift of Christmas Appeal: Organisers decide to permanently close doors on annual campaign

However, organisers have now decided to call it a day and have permanently closed the annual campaign.

The appeal was launched six years ago by four Fife mums who are incredibly proud of what the campaign has achieved in helping to provide some Christmas magic for thousands of children and young people who otherwise, would have received very little, if any presents, on Christmas Day.

At the start of this year, they hailed the success of the 2021 campaign when they managed to provide 1253 children and young people with a gift bag of presents.

But organisers admitted it was more of a struggle than previous years as donations had been a lot slower.

Kate Hope, one of the parents who organises the annual event, revealed why they felt it was time to close the appeal.

She said: “The decision was certainly a difficult one, but the trustees no longer have the time to devote to Gift of Christmas.

"Every year various members of our team have said 'I'm never doing it again', but each year we have changed our minds and decided to continue.

"However, due to employment commitments, childcare commitments, caring responsibilities and various other commitments, it is no longer feasible for us to continue.

"There are six trustees currently, each of whom has undertaken a different role. Losing just one could potentially allowed our work to continue, however, we have lost several, and the others are unable to continue without the rest of the group, due to the volume of work involved. It has made it importable for us to continue.

“For that last six years we have put Gift of Christmas first for most of November and December, to the detriment of our own families, children, jobs, time and Christmases and basically we can't justify it any more.”

But Kate said she and the others are proud of what they were able to achieve with the appeal: “It has been a massive achievement for everyone involved for the past six years and I can give it up knowing I have done my bit,” she said.

"I never anticipated it would get so big or well thought of by the public. Myself and the other trustees are very proud of what we have achieved as an organisation. Any remaining donations which we still have, including cash donations, will be provided directly to our choice from our usual beneficiary organisations, prior to Christmas 2022. After that, our charity will close for good.”

Kate said they are hopeful another group may come forward to carry on the work they have started: “We have been approached by a few individuals and we have one other contact in the pipeline for discussions, which we are hopeful about. We won't allow anyone to take over our name, but we are certainly open to giving advice and guidance, and possibly more, to the right set up.”

She added that the trustees would like to thank all of the beneficiary organisations, the businesses which provided drop off points, warehouse providers and volunteers for all their help over the last six years.

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