Supporting kids in need this Christmas
Christmas wishes for more than 200 local children and young adults have been placed on Christmas trees at Veritas House office in Orange, the charity is now calling on the Orange community to help bring some Christmas cheer to these special young people.
Veritas has set up Christmas Giving Trees again this year at their offices at 29 Sale Street, Orange.With more Christmas wishes to fulfil than ever before, they are calling on local residents to embrace the spirit of giving and purchase a gift for a child or young person who is at risk or experiencing homelessness or unlikely to receive a gift this year due to hardship. Each tree hasgift tags on display that contain the Christmas wish list for each child, local residents simply select a tag and bring it back over the next couple ofweeks with their preferably unwrapped gift.
“The number of young people Veritas is supporting to either move from the Out-of-Home Care system and into independent living, or who are living with Foster Carers, is currently at its highest level for our agency,” said, Jody Pearce, Veritas House CEO. “The Christmas period is also one of our busiest at our youth refuges in Orange and Bathurst; so we are hopeful the local community will get behind our Christmas Appeal again this year.”
Ms Pearce acknowledged that with the challenges faced because of COVID-19 this year, it may be tougher than ever to achieve their goal of providing a gift to every one of the children and young people Veritas supports. In light of this, Veritas has created an additional option this year where residents keen to support the appeal, but who don’t want to attend Veritas,to collect a tag or visit shopping centres can simply call Veritas on 1300 01 1973 and staff will provide details for a child’s wishlist,so the gift can be purchased online and delivered to Veritas.
Alternatively, residents can simply make a tax-deductible donation, and Veritas caseworkers will organise to purchase a child’s gift. “Last year we had a number of parents bring their children in to select a tag and purchase a gift, so they could learn the importance of giving gifts, not simply receiving. We also had a number of businesses in the region replace their office Kris Kringle with buying gifts for our clients, which was a huge contribution towards filling our tree and providing gifts to all of the children in our care,” said Jody.
“We are hoping local residents and businesses will not be put-off by concernsabout Covid and will use one of the options we have available to assist us to bring some joy into the lives of special local children this Christmas, so that we can make Christmas Day a special day the children will truly remember.”
Veritas House is a not-for-profit organisation that was established in the Central West nearly 40 years ago and has grown to become one of the largest providers of foster care and youth homelessness services in the region, supporting more than 800 children and young people each year.