Help make Bromley children's Christmas even better!
Local charities partner up to make Christmas magical for Bromley families in need.
Bromley Brighter Beginnings (BBB) and Mytime Active are working together to encourage residents to give to local families in need this Christmas.
Every year BBB – a volunteer-led charity that helps families in poverty who cannot afford basic items – distributes around 300 bespoke hampers as part of its Christmas for Every Child campaign. Now it has partnered with charitable leisure trust, Mytime Active, to make donating even easier for local residents.
Each hamper is filled with age-appropriate gifts including advent calendars, Christmas jumpers, toys, books, games, toiletries, pyjamas, supermarket vouchers, Christmas treats and even vouchers for older children to choose their own present.
Donation bins have been placed in the reception areas of Mytime Active’s The Spa at Beckenham, The Pavilion, The Walnuts leisure centre & Crofton Halls until 6th November. Donations can include clean, pre-loved Christmas jumpers for anyone from babies through to adults, plus any new, unopened gifts. Alternatively, gifts can be purchased directly from Bromley Brighter Beginning’s Christmas Shop:
Packing begins on Sunday 22nd November so hampers can be delivered by the beginning of December, enabling young children to open their advent calendar on 1st December and wear their festive jumper to Christmas Jumper Day at school.
Around 20% of children in the London Borough of Bromley experience poverty. The BBB campaign began in 2016 and has grown from helping around 50 children to providing hampers for more than 700 children and their families last year.
Anna Austin, fundraising and communications lead for BBB, says: “For families experiencing hardship, Christmas can be especially challenging. It’s a time when the gap between what they hope to give and what they can afford feels widest. Through our campaign we aim to remove some of that anxiety and stigma for parents and bring a smile their little ones’ faces.”
Steve May, CEO at Mytime Active, says: “Christmas should be such a special time for families, but for those living in poverty the stress of facing a day with no presents to give their children can be immense. That’s why we’re supporting BBB’s Christmas for Every Child campaign at our leisure centres, encouraging the local community to each give one thing to help someone in need. The bins will be in our reception areas until 6th November so please pop in and help put a smile on a young child’s face this Christmas.”
Schools, businesses and other local groups can also host collections by contacting jenny@bromleybrighterbeginnings.org.uk.
Read more about this wonderful initiative below.