I like to do something for a charity at Christmas. One year a friend of a friend was organising a Christmas present for each child at a school in Cambodia she'd visited - the little packages were mainly stationery supplies and a few personal grooming things. We loved that one. Another year I took my niece to the shops and we bought toys and treats for the dogs at the local RSPCA then dropped them off. (The lovely staff let my niece give treats to a few of the dogs herself to say thank you. That was awesome.)
This year - and last year - I've been involved in Share the Dignity's It's in the Bag campaign. In case you haven't heard of it, here's a little intro:
My sister did a collection at her work and brought the goodies to me, and I was the assembly point. I went through all the donations, put the bags together and bought the things that we needed to fill out each bag. It was so much fun! The photo below is the day she dropped the donations off (the shelves at the back are full of things donated as well.)
I've been making the bags up and dropping them off in batches, ensuring each one is brimming with good stuff. My last drop off will be this Friday (just slipping under the wire of the cut off date: Saturday), and it will take us to our grand total of 30 bags. Here are a few in their batches:
Of the thirty bags, five were for teenage girls - who also need sanitary supplies (and who often miss out in the present drives because people tend to give more for younger kids). The bags for teens have yellow ribbons so they can be sent in the right direction. Here's the contents of one of our yellow ribbon bags:
Do you have a favourite charity at Christmas? Or do you find it too busy and prefer to give at other times of the year? Or, if things are tight, which charity would you give to if you could?
