Toy appeal ready for new year of donations
Coronavirus and lockdown will not stop a charity from its work collecting and delivering Christmas toys.
The Sikh Toy Appeal has officially launched its 2020 appeal to help as many children across Wolverhampton and the surrounding area to have a present to open on Christmas Day.
The appeal, which is part of the STA Foundation, has operated in the city since 2017 and has grown in size since then, with 25,000 gifts being handed out in 2019.
The charity held a small launch event on Sunday to get the ball rolling on the appeal which, according to founder Manny Johal, has attracted some big name sponsors for 2020.
He said: “We have got Hamleys in London as a sponsor this year as they have picked us to be their chosen 2020 charity, as well as Bentley and Rolls Royce sponsoring us.
“Because of Covid, we’ve had to cancel a lot of events this year, so having sponsors like this is invaluable to us and helps us to help people across the city.”
System
Mr Johal said the appeal had had to change the way it collected toys for the 2020 appeal as lockdown was forcing a lot of toy shops to close their doors over the next month.
He said: “We’ve now got the system where, for the first time, we will accept monetary donation, which we never did before, allowing us to buy toys online to be delivered.
“We are still going to run the appeal and we’re still going to go out and deliver the toys as they come into us, so the pandemic will not stop us from operating on that front.
“We’ve moved to a new premises this year, which enables us to bring in a bigger team so, with full social distancing in place, the appeal will aim to beat the total of last year.”
Mr Johal said there were a number of ways to donate to the Sikh Toy Appeal, beginning with dropping off toys at Unit 22, Imex Business Park in Wolverhampton.
To find out about other ways of donating toys or money, and what to donate, go to thestafoundation.org
