A team of volunteers came together on 25th and 26th November to prepare more than 1,300 gifts, goodies and activities for young people who are staying in mental health hospitals.
Volunteers at last year’s festive preparations | Photo © Christmas for CAMHS
The packing day, at St Mary’s Catholic Church Hall on Julian Road, was organised by Bath-based charity Christmas For CAMHS, who have been organising gifts for Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services units across the country for the past eight years.
The project was launched after charity trustee Dr Rosanna Bevan’s saw that young people in mental health units rarely receive donations, unlike their counterparts in hospital for physical ailments who often receive gifts.
Those taking part included volunteers from Goodgym Bath, students from the University of Bath and Bath Spa University, and residents who saw the appeal for help in the local media.
People spent their weekend pulling together special boxes containing an individual gift for each young person to keep, as well as some small fidget toys, a gift for their ward, such as a board game or art equipment, a wellbeing advent calendar, decorations to make the wards feel festive and some activities to do together, such as colouring-in paper chains.
The gifts were made possible by kind donations from members of the public, who bought gifts from an Amazon WishList or made a financial donation via JustGiving.
The charity has so far hit 18% of its fundraising target this year.
Volunteer packer Claire said: “I was grateful to have the opportunity to feel I was contributing towards making Christmas for those young people not with their families a little happier.
“I also thoroughly enjoyed meeting lots of new people whilst having fun getting the parcels together!”
Rosanna, a Bathonian who co-founded Christmas for CAMHS, added: “We are so grateful to our volunteer elves for all the time and effort they put in this weekend to make young people feel thought about and special at a tricky time of year to be in hospital.
“We’re delighted that we will be able to reach every CAMHS unit across the country this year, thanks to the generous support of the public. We’re hoping to hit 100% of our fundraising target by Christmas Day!”
Speaking last year, Alicia, deputy ward manager of a CAMHS ward, said: “It’s not the gift itself, necessarily, it’s that young people are being thought about, and that people who they’ve never met are sending them gifts to make them feel more joy at Christmas… to recognise that people are caring about them and thinking about them, and that’s really important.”
Anyone interested in finding out more about the Christmas For CAMHS can visit their website, or to make a donation to support the charity’s work, go to their JustGiving page.
