The annual collection day for the Stirling Observer’s Toy Appeal took place on Friday 13 December, as charity representatives piled into Muir Hall in Doune to bag toys and gifts for children and families who need a helping hand this Christmas.
The hall was piled high with toys for children of all ages. As baby clothes and toys covered one corner and board games and lego filled another, with plenty in between.
Kaiya Marjoribanks, a reporter at the Stirling Observer, runs the appeal every year.
She organises local drop-off points for the toy appeal, collecting the donations from every drop-off point and setting up the hall for at least a week before the collection day, making sure everything is set up perfectly.
Following the collection day, she said: “Hopefully all the charities and good causes are away happy and, more importantly, going to make some children happy.
“We just want to say thank you to everybody who donated.
“Yet again, it has been an overwhelming response from everyone in the community, which shows that the biggest gift is the gift of a community that cares.”
After letting the representatives into the hall at 12pm, it only took a whopping eight minutes for the hall to be completely cleared of all the toys.
Stirling and Strathallan MP, Chris Kane, was also in attendance on collection day, he said: “What a remarkable appeal this is, it is an amazing appeal that helps so many families at this time of year.
“So thank you to the Stirling Observer for another year’s worth of great local journalism, we really need local journalism.
“And thank you to Kaiya and the team for collecting all of this and to everybody that has made donations.”
Featured image credit: Anya Diggines
