Saturday 16th November saw the members of Rotary Great Aycliffe assembled at the 5 Acres site in ROF59 to distribute the huge quantity of toys that had been given to them by Tesco, Newton Aycliffe, recently.
Initially a total of 35 ‘bakers type’ trays of toys had been received by the Rotary Club to distribute to needy families. The Rotary Club of Great Aycliffe had contacted ten local charities and similar minded organisations in the Newton Aycliffe and surrounding area who they hoped would take a share of the toys and then place them with families and in particular children who would not otherwise enjoy Christmas presents this year.
After circulating a list of the toys that were available to most of the recipients, a second batch of toys arrived from Tesco at very short notice, but this did not phase the club.
The Rotary Club had prepared an initial list of who would receive which toys based on the requirements of the clients of each charity/organisation and preferences shown by some of them, but due to a lack of time the second delivery was not included in this. So, after the members spent the best part of two hours separating the first delivery of toys into ten different lots, the representatives of the recipients had only a ten minute lunch break to devour the sandwiches and other goodies generously donated by Walker’s Butchers.
At 2.00pm the charity’s/organisation’s representatives arrived to take these away and also to take a share of the second delivery, that they had not seen or read about, but not until they had been photographed with the Club President Geoff Knapton. Due to Saturday’s being busy days for all, not all of the organisations could be represented on Saturday but, where this happened, a Rotarian was appointed to make choices for them, based on previous knowledge, and to deliver the toys to them in the following few days.
By 3.00pm, all toys had been allocated to a charity/organisation and most were packed into cars and were on their way, leaving the Rotarians to enjoy a well earned cuppa knowing that with the amazing support of Tesco Newton Aycliffe and, in particular, Shirley Cormack, that there were going to be a lot of children that would enjoy a Christmas with gifts, something a lot of us just take for granted.
This day was only made possible by the kindness of Tesco Newton Aycliffe, their Community Champion Shirley Cormack and the Proprietors of 5 Acres, for the use of their premises, and the people who have given up their time to make this happen.
Thank you to all of you.
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