Ukraine to benefit as kind-hearted pupils donate to Knaresborough Rotary’s Shoebox Appeal

Knaresborough Rotary President David Kaye and project co-ordinator Rotarian David Druett visited King James’s School in Knaresborough recently to collect a hundred shoeboxes filled by year 7 pupils to send off to some of the poorest countries in Europe for Christmas as part of Rotary’s annual collection for orphanages and children’s homes in Eastern Europe.

This year many of the boxes will go to Ukraine.

King James’s head of year, Mr Keogh, said: ‘’The Year 7s, their tutors and families worked really hard as a team to fill the shoeboxes full to the brim with wonderful gifts.

"They will put smiles on the faces of all the less fortunate children, who open the shoeboxes at Christmas. They should be very proud of their efforts’’

Originally started by Rotary clubs in Northwest England in 1994, the Rotary Shoebox Scheme was intended to provide children of Iasi, in north-east Romania with Christmas gifts.

Since then, the scheme has become a national project, supported not only by rotary clubs, but also by individuals, schools, scouts and guides, companies, churches, Inner Wheel, Rotaract and Interact Clubs.

Some 50,000 boxes are now sent out annually to many different countries in Central and Eastern Europe.

Toys are especially useful all year round for birthday presents in the orphanages, homes and hospitals.

All age groups - including teenagers - welcome the boxes.

They are delivered to children and teenagers in orphanages, hospitals and also to street kids, to adults in TB and AIDS hospitals, to disadvantaged families and to women’s refuges and to older folk in hostels with no supporting families.

Non-political, non-religious, Rotary is a Worldwide Service Organisation for people who care, providing opportunities to put something back into the world with involvement in projects that address critical issues.

The Rotary motto is Service Above Self.

Members are drawn from a wide cross-section of the community.

To find out more about Knaresborough Rotary, which was formed in 1962, visit their website www.knaresborough.rotary1040.org or email [email protected].