It’s that time of the year again! Christmas decorations and carols will soon be in the shops, and the Rotary Club of Grahamstown Sunset will be outside Pick ‘n Pay appealing to the public to help them collect gifts for the annual Tree of Joy project.
‘Tree of Joy’ is an international Rotary project, with collections taking place in towns and cities all over the world. The objective is to provide a Christmas gift to those who might otherwise not receive anything during the festive season. Beneficiaries are asked to indicate their Christmas gift wish and the public are invited to make up the gift for distribution before Christmas. Over the past 10 years, the Rotary Club of Grahamstown Sunset has collected many thousands of gifts, thanks to the generosity of local residents. The gifts, often humble requests like toiletries or sweets, or an item of clothing, have made Christmas a little brighter for many people for whom Christmas is just another day.
Organiser of the Tree of Joy project this year, Rotarian Debbie Smuts said, “We’re collecting this year for the elderly residents of McKaiser Home and Hayton Place, the residents of Salem Crossroads Christian Care Centre and the Corner House, and the children of the Amasango Career School. We’ll be outside Pick n Pay with cards and we ask everyone who is able to afford one extra gift this year to help us to brighten Christmas for these people who have so little. We ask for a gift worth about R100 wrapped up and ready to bring joy to someone who will otherwise have nothing else on Christmas Day.”
The Rotarians make sure that the gifts are distributed, and sometimes buy gifts from donations made at the Tree of Joy if a gift card is not taken. Once the gifts are bought and wrapped the gift, they can be left at Wallace’s Pharmacy for collection.
Rotarians will be at the Tree of Joy outside Pick n Pay in the late afternoons from next week. Please collect a card and make up a gift, or give them a donation for the Tree of Joy.
“We get to see the joy that these gifts bring when we deliver them,” President of the Rotary Club of Grahamstown Sunset, Kesentri Govender said. It means so much to these people to get a gift that is thoughtfully wrapped with kind words on a card. We are so grateful to the residents of Grahamstown who support us with this project every year.”
