Local businesses rally to deliver 1,500 gifts to vulnerable children during Christmas 2023

A collective of businesses and volunteers have joined forces to deliver over 1,500 presents to children in Stoke-on-Trent and surrounding areas on Friday 22nd and Saturday 23rd of December.

Ran by Port Vale FC and supported by The Hubb Foundation, Bescura and Staffordshire Police, the appeal has collected toys for the football club’s Christmas Appeal 2023.

On Friday 15th December, students from Stoke College and a volunteer from local storage providers, Rackline wrapped and organised all the gifts. Rackline has also donated racking to the Hubb Foundation to help keep track of the 1,500 presents this year.

As each gift was wrapped, they were categorised by age and gender, meaning Christmas Appeal volunteers would be able to sort and select the required presents easily before delivering them to families around the city.

Christmas Appeal Project Manager, Mollie Johnstone said: “We’re incredibly grateful to Rackline for this donation. Having the new shelving has made a huge difference this year. Being able to organise and categorise the presents helps us to keep track of them easily ensuring the wrong gift isn’t delivered to the children.

“We’re delivering to 350 families who’ve been referred to the Hubb Foundation, either directly, through Staffordshire Police, the Port Vale Foundation or from the Bescura Family Centre. Some families may need up to 12 presents, so having this new system in place means we can give each child the right gift, easily.”

Wayne Cliff from Rackline said: “We’re pleased to see our donated shelving going to such good use within an important cause. The Christmas Appeal 2023 is such a special project and we’re happy to be a small part of it.”

The presents will be delivered alongside a dry food hamper and a frozen Christmas meal. The Stoke College students have also mixed “reindeer food” which will be sprinkled at the families’ houses for an added touch of Christmas magic.

A huge variety of toys will be delivered to the doorsteps of Stoke-on-Trent families including a selection of 800 books which have been gifted by the National Literacy Foundation.