50 pubs mark 5th anniversary of tsunami disaster with appeal
Howard Lake | 28 December 2009 | News
Fifty local pubs have joined forces to launch a campaign called ‘Project Re-Gift’. Marking the fifth anniversary of the South East Asian Tsunami disaster, the campaign aims to help orphans in Thailand and disadvantaged kids across the UK.
The pubs’ landlords are inviting people to bring in unwanted or unsuitable children’s Christmas gifts. Half will go to KidsOut which runs a Toy Box Scheme for children fleeing domestic violence in the UK. The rest will be taken to the Baan Tharn Namchai Orphanage, home to tsunami orphans in Khao Lak, Thailand.
According to an online survey of 500 parents in the UK in November 2009, a fifth of gifts received by children were unsuitable or duplicated existing presents. Of these, 30% were not age appropriate and 6% of gifts were not even taken out of the box.
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Each of the fifty pubs will have a collection point where people can hand in their presents. All items must be brand new.
Denise and Les Strettle, Managers at the Cock & Dragon pub in Cockfosters, explained: “Instead of stuffing unwanted presents in the back of the cupboard to collect dust, we’re urging people to do something great with gifts that aren’t quite right for you, but could be for someone else. ‘Re-gifting’ is a fun way to recycle that’s good for the planet too.”
In addition to Project Re-Gift, the pubs have set themselves a fundraising target of £30,000 to support the work at the Thai Orphanage.
About Howard Lake
Howard Lake is consultant editor of UK Fundraising. He founded the site in 1994 and successfully sold it in 2022. As director of Giving X Ltd he is exploring growing giving on a massive scale.
He is the founder of Fundraising Camp and co-founder of GoodJobs.