10 tonnes of pre-loved gifts are needed for young people, from birth to sixteen, experiencing hardship this Christmas.
Yorwaste, working with North Yorkshire County Council and the City of York Council, is set to launch its annual Reuse Santa campaign on the 15th November, with a mission to match or improve the number of donations it received in 2020.
Once again, the Reuse Santa Appeal is partnering with No Wrong Door, the charity which supports young people who are within or on the edge of the care system in North Yorkshire, as well as Barnardo’s, British Heart Foundation, the Daisy Chain Project, Banana Box Toy Project, York Foodbank and the Recycling Project CIC, to ensure no young person goes without a gift this Christmas.
Last Christmas, the public donated over 2,000 pre-loved games, toys, puzzles and books, including air hockey tables, dolls houses, Nerf Guns, bicycles and giant teddy bears, for families experiencing hardship.
This year, the Reuse Santa Appeal is calling for the people across York and North Yorkshire to bring even more good quality, fully-functioning and well-preserved gifts for young people, from newborns through to teenagers, to one of its 22 household waste recycling centres (HWRCs) throughout the county. Yorwaste site operatives will be on hand at the HWRCs to receive the pre-loved donations and ensure they find their way to a deserving new home.
Teri Owens, Team Manager at No Wrong Door, said:
Earlier this year, it was reported by Action for Children that more than a third of children in Yorkshire and the Humber are living in poverty, with the region seeing above average levels of young people living below the breadline. Last year, the efforts of Yorwaste, the two councils and the kindness demonstrated by the public transformed Christmas for hundreds of young people who were having a tough time, and this year the public’s ongoing generosity is needed more than ever.
James Todd, Marketing Executive at Yorwaste said:
Now in its third year, our Reuse Santa Campaign, which was created to encourage people to think twice before throwing perfectly good yet outgrown toys away, and instead use them for good, is growing in size and popularity.
We intend this year to be our biggest yet…The people of York and North Yorkshire have been incredibly generous to date, so we have no doubt we’ll hit our target. As well as our household waste recycling centres, we are working on other festive events to make it easy and fun to donate, which will be revealed to the public shortly.
The company’s mantra is, ‘Reduce, Reuse, Recycle’, and site operatives are on hand to help the public dispose responsibly of toys and games that may not be suitable for regifting, but can still be reused.
Once received, the donations will be thoroughly checked to ensure they’re fully functioning and re-giftable, then delivered to No Wrong Door. Suitable gifts will be given as part of a Christmas family bag, via the Children’s Social Care team, to families in North Yorkshire and York. Surplus items will then be distributed to Yorwaste’s other charity partners to be gifted to local children or sold for great causes.
Yorwaste’s site locations, which it operates on behalf of North Yorkshire County Council and the City of York Council, can be found at www.northyorks.gov.uk/hwrc or www.york.gov.uk/WasteAndRecycling. The sites are also taking donations of new / part used Christmas wrapping paper and tape as part of the appeal and donations will be accepted up-to the 15th December.
