Toy Rescue Service

All through the year we collect soft toys and other items suitable for Samaritan's Purse Christmas shoeboxes. We have a good link with one particular charity shop in Boscombe, this picture shows the pile of stuff we have just collected from there, we get this sort of amount every 2 or 3 weeks. Ruth goes through it all, a small amount is rubbish and is binned. Of the rest, all the grubby soft toys go through our washing machine and tumble dryer, other items, such as jewellery, are cleaned and bagged, dolls are sent to a friend of ours who lovingly cleans them up, does their hair and makes clothes for them. At the end, good as new, everything is taken to the warehouse in Christchurch and stored, ready for the shoebox season starting in November.