Tranmere Rovers Football Club are running a Reverse Advent Calendar project to help those across the Wirral community this festive season, and Vice-Chairman Nicola Palios has called on the SWA to help!
The Club are looking for donations which must include non-perishable food as well as toiletries, which will then be distributed into hampers to local people who need it the most on Sunday 29th December, when Rovers host Blackpool at Prenton Park.
Donations are being accepted from now until Christmas Eve, with drop off points at Prenton Park, Home in Oxton, and the Home Brew Taps in West Kirby or New Brighton.
Tranmere Rovers are more than a Football Club, and Nicola explained what the initiative means and why it is so important.
Nicola said: “The idea is for each day of December, people who are taking part put one item of non-perishable food or toiletries into a box, in the way that you would open an advent calendar door each day of the month, we are asking people to donate something instead.
“So, by the 24th December, we will have a load of ready-made hampers and toiletries to give to people who really need them.
“It is something that I’ve come across doing my reading about charity initiatives, but it seemed to fit in well with what we have done in previous years. Our foodbanks help with the homeless and under privileged people.
“It seemed something that people can focus on, so it means that families who are struggling get to join in the Christmas festivities like the rest of us.
“If you’re homeless, it’s a really cold time of year, but it is a really isolating time of year if you can’t afford to do what everyone else takes for granted. So this one time of year, we thought let’s try and give local families who are really struggling the ability to do everything that we take for granted.
“They can be donated from anytime between now until 24th December either here at the Club, at Home in Oxton, or the Home Brew Taps in West Kirby or New Brighton.
“We’ll collect all the boxes on Christmas Eve. We’re hoping to persuade a few local supermarkets to provide us with last minute perishables. We’ll then distribute the boxes at our game on 29th December, which we’re actually having a big event at the Club, which we do every year.
“We invite socially isolated and very disadvantaged people into the Club for the day. We’ll give them something to eat, tickets to the match and activities with them, and we’ll hopefully distribute the hampers as well.
“It’s nice to do something for people between Christmas and New Year as it is a time when everyone else is with their families and having fun, so it is nice to make people feel included and not forgotten about.”