Toy Appeal 2022 – Giving back and coming together
Written by Kita Berman van Heerden and Smera Nadeem
“Thank you is not enough to say how much this helps!”
It is a very tough time for hard-pressed families in east London at the moment, and it was even more important for ELBA’s annual Toy Appeal to have a bumper year to help more children enjoy the festive period. Thanks to the enormous generosity of ELBA’s business partners and their staff over 17,000 toys were donated.
“I will be eternally grateful for these gifts, I don’t know how I would do it without this little bit of extra help.”
Over 90 businesses got involved in donating toys through fundraising activities, purchasing toys and organising internal office collections. It was great to see the effort and enthusiasm to support. For the third year running, Canary Wharf Group hosted the Toy Appeal ‘grotto’ by providing a retail unit in Jubilee Place Shopping Mall from which we distributed the 17,000 toys to over 105 community organisations in East London and Islington. Having the retail unit also meant that members of the public could visit the grotto and drop off toys, which resulted in an extra 600 toys – we could not have done it without the support of the Canary Wharf Group.
Rochelle McIntyre from Marjory Kinnon School said:
“I cannot thank you enough for the huge benefit ELBA has given to our students and their families. This will really boost the morale of our families and help with the financial constraints during this economic climate. As a special needs school, there were enough toys to support all ages and abilities.”
ELBA also partnered with local toy stores such as After Noah and Just Williams, along with a family-run toy wholesaler Albert-Harrison who were all incredibly generous in providing discounts and providing additional toys for free. We welcomed new donors Thales Ground Transportation Services (GTS) and Alvarez & Marsal, alongside our long-standing supporters, such as UBS, who remain our largest contributors towards the appeal, closely followed by Credit Suisse.
Eleanor Wase, one of our grotto elves from Thales GTS said:
“The Thales GTS team is delighted to work with ELBA on their annual Christmas toy collection initiative. Our team at Beckton did a great job getting behind the toy appeal. The team’s day job is working to upgrade parts of the transport network in London and our staff always enjoy getting involved in delivering more for the local communities we work in. We look forward to working together with ELBA in the future.”
Along with toy donations, we were thrilled to have in-person volunteering return at our grotto with over 250 corporate elves from businesses such as Man Group, Credit Suisse, Societe Generale and more getting stuck right in; picking toys, wrapping, boxing and loading up toys ready for distributing, without their support the day to day logistics would not have been possible.
“Thank you so much, at least my children will have some gifts under the tree now.”
The Toy Appeal went international this year; ITV news and ARD news (from Germany) were both amazed by the massive operation and included a feature on ELBA during prime time and through social media. This increased awareness of the appeal and brought in additional funds and interest from the public which contributed to the large number of toys donated and meeting the JustGiving target. Watch the videos here: ITV and ARD.
Julie Pell from the Walthamstow Salvation Army told us:
“We have seen a 500% increase in referrals since Covid hit and the cost of living crisis means that these have stayed at the same level and continue to increase. Gifts may not seem that important in the scheme of this situation, but actually, they allow families an opportunity to enjoy a season that would otherwise be so very difficult.”
ELBA is proud to recognise that the Toy Appeal has become a symbol of people’s kindness and generosity, whilst really encompassing ELBA’s mission of being an alliance which brings people together to make a positive change. While it’s easy to celebrate the success and scale of the appeal, the reality is that if it wasn’t for the ELBA Toy Appeal there would have been thousands of children who would not have received a gift at Christmas.
Ian Parkes, ELBA CEO said:
“We have been running the Toy Appeal for over 20 years and there has not been a tougher run of three years than what we have now. Thank you so much to every business and individual who contributed to the Appeal.”
For more information, please contact Smera Nadeem at smera.nadeem@elba-1.org.uk.
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