Balderton Methodist Church fills Christmas goodie bags supporting Newark-based Emmaus Trust
Nearly 50 bags of Christmas goodies were filled for an appeal launched by Balderton Methodist Church for a charity that supports young homeless people.
Two members of the congregation — Anne Wood and Margaret Bottomley — came up with the idea.
The church on Main Street usually supports a shoebox appeal for children in Romania, but with that unable to go ahead this year due to coronavirus, they sought an alternative, and decided to support the Newark-based Emmaus Trust.
Bridget Castle, a church steward, said: “Members of the congregation filled gift bags and people from the community donated all sorts of items.
“We had jackets and pram blankets knitted and have filled 47 bags for young men and women and children and also had toys donated.
“The Emmaus Trust also requested books, so we had a lot of those.”
The trust provides accommodation with professional care, support and training to homeless young people aged 16 to 25. It also offers accommodation and care to pregnant women as well as young parents and their babies.
It aims to give them chance to learn and develop as individuals and encourages the development of the skills needed to move on to independence and employment.
It’s staff collected the donations from the church on Tuesday.
John Hudson, deputy manager at the Emmaus Trust, said: “Every adult, all 36 of them, and the 11 toddlers that we support all have a pack, which is incredibly generous, and we have toys and children’s books too.
“A lot of our residents are estranged from their families and often receive no support from them at all and it may be the only present they get. Others are on low incomes so a gift such as this will make a big difference.
“Everything is already wrapped and colour-coded leaving us to just add the names.”