A Christmas Gift Appeal from Catholic Sixth Form Group, Christ the King Sixth Forms, resulted in over 2,00 items being donated at the sixth forms in Lewisham, Brockley and Sidcup.
Christ the King Sixth Forms, alongside College group EKC, launched a joint appeal for Christmas gifts and donations to support local charities in these difficult times and make Christmas special for those in need. As part of the campaign, the colleges launched a gift appeal, a Go Fund Me link for donations and an Art auction to raise cash for the appeals. Staff, students and the general public could hand in donations at Christ the King Sixth Forms and EKC Colleges.
At the Christ the King Sixth Forms, over 2,000 items were donated. In total they collected 2,168 items – 561 were gift items such as children’s toys and books, 382 were toiletry items, 826 were food items, seven brand new clothing items, 152 items will go to a local charity shop and 240 items were luxury chocolates and biscuits.
The Go Fund Me Link collected £3,337, with £1,000 of that donated by John Sinik at Metric Capital, who supports Christ the King Sixth Forms in offering a CTK Metric Capital Scholarship for three Christ the King Sixth Form students each to support their university studies, with a scholarship worth £15,000 each.
The art auction which featured work donated by staff and students at Christ the King Sixth Form and EKC group also raised £1,058 Christ the King Sixth Forms launched the appeal to help three local charities. One of the charities being helped is Refuge in Lewisham, which offers homes to family members fleeing domestic abuse. Demelza Children’s Hospice based in Eltham also benefited from the appeal. Another was Catford based St Vincent de Paul Society (SVP), which supports families, the isolated, ex-offenders, the elderly and those with mental health issues and the 200 older residents who are isolated and vulnerable during the Covid-19 pandemic through Bring Me Sunshine (BMS). This is a team of 20 volunteers backed by five churches in Catford – Holy Cross, St Andrew, St Laurence, Brownhill Baptist Church and the Salvation Army.
Shireen Razey, Principal of Christ the King Sixth Forms, a group of Catholic Sixth Forms in South East London, said: “We delighted with the gifts and money raised as part of our campaign. Our students are keen to make a difference in the local communities where they live and work, many of which have been affected by the pandemic. Our Sixth Forms do a lot of work supporting charities, and we all wanted to make the festive period special for young people who have experienced such hardship this year.”
