Toy Appeal: Bears players help spread Christmas cheer

Warwickshire County Cricket Club and the Edgbaston Foundation have again helped spread some Christmas cheer after thousands of gifts were sent out from the stadium to children across the region.

The Club partnered with Birmingham Live, Thrive Birmingham and the Birmingham Playcare Network to act as a storage and distribution hub for BrumWish.

The BrumWish appeal provides toys and other Christmas presents to children’s charities and refuges during the festive period for youngsters who otherwise may go without.

A total of around 11,000 gifts were donated thanks to the generosity of Bears fans, businesses and kind-hearted people across Birmingham.

All the donations were stored, sorted and distributed from Edgbaston Stadium to great causes in the region.

Edgbaston partners Selco donated builders bags to deliver the toys, BMW Sytner Solihull lent a van to help collect 10,000 books donated by the National Literacy Trust and Birmingham City University (BCU) also organised a toy collection on campus.

And Warwickshire players Olly Hannon-Dalby, Danny Briggs and Craig Miles lent a hand loading presents onto one of the many vans that distributed presents around the city.

Edgbaston Community Engagement Officer, Esther Lau-Mackaay, said: “We’ve been blown away by people’s generosity, especially during a cost of living crisis when finances are tight for many people.

“Seeing so many gifts arriving at the stadium is truly heartening. We had more than 9,500 individual new gifts received and distributed, plus 2,000 books, which we’ve sent to 60 different centres including those for families in temporary accommodation.

“It’s been a fantastic team effort by lots of partners and volunteers.”