This year we will again be supporting the work of Birmingham City Mission. From November there will be boxes in the Wilberforce Hall at St. Nicholas and at the Church Centres to receive gifts for BCM. They will be presented at the Christmas gift services (2nd December at St. Stephen’s, when the speaker will be from BCM) at 9th December at St. Nicholas as part of our All Age Worship services.

BCM have given the following suggestions:

Toys

We often find ourselves in particular need of the following:

• Gifts for babies: rattles, teething rings, toys to shake, touch & feel.
• Toddlers (under 3s) - stacking rings, board books, small pull along toys etc.
• Boys/girls (8-10s) - toys, games, (jigsaws not above 8yrs).
• Teenagers (10-15yrs). Some suggestions for these are: Boys: footballs, football pumps, gloves, dartboard, toiletries & book annuals (football books should not be for specific teams). Girls: toiletries, make up, jewellery, jewellery boxes, gloves, toe socks, books (Annuals only).

We always need Christmas wrapping paper.

Due to changes in regulations, we can no longer give out hand-knitted toys and second hand soft toys with no CE label.

Please do not send damaged books, those written in, ex-library books, or out of date annuals. No jigsaws with missing pieces or boxed games with broken corners. It will be helpful if battery-operated toys have batteries included.

You will appreciate that these guidelines are in place to help us make Christmas special for the children of our city. For some, these presents are the only ones they will receive - so it is very important that everything is in excellent condition.

Thank you again on behalf of the Toy-Link team.

Food - for use at the resource centre

We (BCM) give out monthly food/basics parcels and the items which we are often in need of are:

• Cereals
• Tinned meat or fish
• Tinned vegetables
• Sugar
• Long life milk
• Tea
• Coffee
• Toiletries (toothpaste, toilet rolls, deodorant, shampoo, shaving foam)

We generally have good supplies of baked beans and soup so if these could be avoided that would be great. If you wanted to collect food items specifically for Christmas, things like Christmas puddings and mince pies would be gratefully received.

Posted on November 24th, 2007 by Richard Huss
Filed under: Mission, St. Nicholas, St. Stephen's