Posted: 24 / 12 / 2020
Over 400 children living in poverty across the UK woke up to discover Santa had been to visit thanks to a Christmas Toy Appeal run by national accountancy firm, Sedulo.
The Appeal is in its eighth year and was set up in an effort to support the half a million children in the UK whose disadvantaged backgrounds mean they will wake up at Christmas to find Santa hasn’t been to visit.
In previous years the Appeal has supported youngsters across Manchester, Leeds and London, and after the firm opened a new office in the heart of Liverpool city centre in October, the Appeal was extended to children in the Liverpool city region by teaming up with law firm, CEL Solicitors, as well as local charities and carers.
After kicking off the campaign in November, the company, their team and hundreds of sponsors clubbed together to create personalised Santa sacks for each child which included clothes, toys, craft gifts, dolls, action figures, toiletries and the year’s must-haves, all based off of their individual interests and tastes.
By the close of December, nearly 5,000 presents had been bought and wrapped ready to deliver to the 404 children who the Appeal pledged to support.
Gifts were presented to all of the charities and carers by the Sedulo team, flanked by appeal ambassadors including Invictus Games medallist Andy Grant, rugby legends Kevin Sinfield and Jamie Jones-Buchanan and Manchester rap star, Bugzy Malone.
Paul Cheetham-Karcz, founder of Sedulo Group explained:
“The Toy Appeal is one of the most important things we do as an organisation, to support the communities we operate in. Christmas is a time for children to have fun, and the thought of some not receiving any presents at all on Christmas Day is heart-breaking.
“As a business, we can’t stand back and let that happen, so each year we provide bespoke Santa sacks to children in poverty in each of the four cities we work in. The sacks contain at least 10 presents, all of which are handpicked in-line with the child’s interests.
“This year was our first in Liverpool and, with us being new to the city, we did it in conjunction with CEL Solicitors. We can’t thank Jessica and her team enough for supporting this initiative and look forward to the 2021 toy appeal.”