Cricketers from the Warwickshire men’s team squad recently helped distribute more than 16,500 new and nearly new toys to community groups that are supporting some of Birmingham’s most vulnerable children as part of the #Toy4Birmingham appeal.
Co-ordinated at Warwickshire’s home of Edgbaston Stadium, #Toys4Birmingham is a united campaign from the club’s official charity the Edgbaston Foundation, Thrive Together Birmingham and Birmingham PlayCare Network.
Together, the charities have staged three donation days over the last two weeks, which saw in excess of 16,500 toys donated, which the players helped deliver yesterday ready to be wrapped for children to open on Christmas Day.
Warwickshire captain Will Rhodes led one of the groups of players, which delivered gifts to St. Germain’s Church on City Road. “To come here and distribute books, toys to the less fortunate is a fantastic thing for us to do,” he said.
“As a professional sportsman you can be in a little bit of a bubble sometimes and all you think about is cricket and not the outside world. There’s a lot more to the world than cricket and today proves that.”
“It’s been staggering to see the response we’ve had to #Toys4Birmingham. The spirit and generosity shown across Birmingham has been unreal and I’ve been blown away by how incredible people at the Club and the players are.
Ravi Masih, Head of Community Engagement at Warwickshire CCC and Lead of the Edgbaston Foundation
“I think what is great about today is that the players can see the impact that’s being made. People were loving that they could meet their stars and it has been a really nice Warwickshire family initiative with people making donations across the Club.”
The #Toys4Birmingham appeal follows on from a food storage and distribution initiative that that Edgbaston Foundation delivered from the stadium with Thrive Together Birmingham in the first summer lockdown, with more than £51,500 worth of food distributed to community groups across the city.
The Club also donated the car park at Edgbaston to be used as a drive-through COVID test centre, whilst further fundraising was co-ordinated through the 2.6 Challenge, through sales of charity t-shirts and a cricket-wide auction.
To make a donation to the Edgbaston Foundation, please click here.
