Optiseller and River Kids

In early December Laura Cassidy Miller , Betty Kwok and Patricia Wilson from the Optiseller Marketing team spent the day at River Kids Children's Charity to help sort out Christmas gifts for their referrals. River Kids is a #westlothian based #charity who “support disadvantaged children and their respective families in West Lothian and the wider community.? River Kids will achieve this by providing those disadvantaged children with opportunities to reach their full potential.? This will be through educational, financial, and emotional support.”

River Kids receive over 3,000 referrals from disadvantaged families around Christmas and provide a bag of gifts for each child so that no child in West Lothian wakes up on Christmas day without a gift to open.

The day was extremely humbling, seeing the sheer volume of referral paperwork that they work through, they can see more than 100 requests from an individual school alone! The work they do is phenomenal and eye opening especially at this time of year. But of course, it is not just at Christmas! They receive referral requests from vulnerable families and children all year-round providing boxes of clothes, toys and essentials for families who have been displaced or who have had to leave home suddenly, there is no quiet time at River Kids.

Throughout the day, we sorted the bags of toys into age groups and gender, and fulfilled the orders coming through as well as helping load the referrals into the cars of those who came to pick them up, walking over 12,000 steps by 3pm!

We also got to help sort all the amazing donations into appropriate age groups, before packing each bag up following a predetermined list which consists of a main toy, a small toy, a puzzle or jigsaw, a board game or art set, a ‘throw in’ stocking filler, a soft toy (for ages under 10), and a selection box, to ensure all kids receive a good and equal variety of gifts at Christmas.

Optiseller offer one day a year to all staff to take the day off work and offer volunteering for a charity/cause close to their heart. We are already looking forward to helping them next year but in the meantime we want to help the charity as much as we can so if you are passing through #westlothian, #scotland then pop in to their store where they sell a great range of pre loved household items and toys.

Thank you for having us River Kids!