Highland charity Blythswood praises UK public as 84,655 gift boxes head for Eastern Europeans in need
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A Highland-based charity says it has been overwhelmed by the “kindness and love” that helped send 84,655 gift-filled boxes to eight Eastern European countries.
Blythswood’s 2023 Shoe Box Appeal captured the public’s imagination across the UK, with many lorry-loads of gifts being transported to those in need in time for Christmas.
The charity described the efforts of donors and volunteers in rallying to help complete strangers as truly humbling and said they would make a huge difference to people’s lives.
The last lorry left the Highland charity’s Kent sorting station on Friday last week with 6,181 boxes bound for Ukraine.
It was the third lorry-load of boxes for the country in crisis, and many of the recipients will be people displaced from their homes by the war.
Alan Swanson, Blythswood’s head of UK projects, said: “This year’s Shoe Box Appeal has been a great effort by donors and sorters and by all our staff and volunteers.
“I’m so glad that once again we have been able to send boxes to Albania, Bulgaria, Hungary, Kosovo, Moldova, Romania, Serbia and Ukraine.”
Blythswood’s chief executive James Campbell is just back from distributing boxes in Sliven, Bulgaria.
He said: “It’s always deeply moving to see how much your gifts mean to the people who receive them.
“At a time when so many of our supporters are struggling to make ends meet at home, I want to thank you all for your generosity.”
Blythswood’s Shoe Box Appeal began in 1993 when 300 boxes were sent to Romania.
This year’s appeal brings the total to over 2.6 million.
Containing day-to-day essentials such as socks, toiletries, sweets and woolly hats, the boxes are distributed in orphanages, care homes, hospitals, Roma villages, refugee centres and prisons.
