By JOLENE OGLE
THE Noosa Today annual Christmas Cheer Campaign has wrapped up for another year, with all kind donations going to the Basket Brigade to help make Christmas extra-special for over 100 local families.
The Basket Brigade spends the year collecting gifts for families, long-life foods and Christmas treats to help make the festive season a little brighter for those doing it tough.
This year has seen some exceptional fund-raising efforts from locals including two Cooroy State School students who collected over 540 books for the Basket Brigade to dispense to children throughout the shire.
Elizabeth Delley and Lauren Hewitt, who are both school captains at Cooroy State School, first learnt about the Noosa Library Give-A-Book campaign through an article in Noosa Today and decided they wanted to help.
With the support of their teachers and fellow students, the girls placed donation boxes in 21 classrooms, collecting hundreds of books including over 80 books from one classroom of 25 children.
One boy donated all the books he received for his birthday.
The books have been donated to the Basket Brigade, which will this Saturday pack over 100 hampers to give to local families in need.
Elizabeth’s mum, Joanne, said she didn’t think it would work but she was very proud of her daughter.
“I’m so proud she had faith in herself and faith in her school,” she said.
Sunshine Coast Basket Brigade co-ordinator Trish Bignall said the group volunteers all cried when they heard of the effort of the two students that had gone into collecting the books.
Local businesses also lent a helping hand such as the team from OPSM Noosa Civic.
Team member Verinia read about the collection drive in Noosa Today and, after approaching her boss and co-workers, everyone decided to collect two items of food per week, which resulted in a trolley-full of food for the Basket Brigade hampers.
Many donations were also received through the Noosa Today office, with one mysterious local dropping off 10 bags of shopping on Monday morning, which is sure to really make Christmas special for the 325 beneficiaries of the Basket Brigade hampers this year.
Thank you to everyone who so kindly donated to the Noosa Today annual Christmas Cheer Campaign that will help spread a little cheer through the hard work of the Sunshine Coast Basket Brigade.
“I’m constantly amazed of how this community is getting behind us,” Trish said.
