New initiative to spread birthday joy to local children
A Scottish business with children at its heart has set up a new initiative to help young partygoers spread birthday joy to less fortunate children across Scotland.
Conifox Adventure Park & Activity Centre, near Edinburgh, have created a Birthday Club initiative where children celebrating their birthday with a party – and their guests – can donate an extra gift for a child in need.
The venture follows the success of the festive Toy Appeal collaboration which ran during Conifox Adventure Park & Activity Centre’s Christmas Experience and is the brainchild of Fiona Shapcott, Founder of local charity Kids Love Clothes. Last year the generosity of Conifox customers, in partnership with Kids Love Clothes, helped to provide 400 gift bags of toys for distribution via the charity’s established network.
Deborah Gammell from Conifox Adventure Park & Activity Centre says: “The response to our Christmas Toy Appeal was fantastic and while we recognize that some families struggle at Christmas time, we also acknowledge that there are those who struggle with birthdays too. This project will help spread a little extra happiness all year round by reaching out to families and offering them the chance to celebrate their child’s birthday.
“At Conifox, we host several parties every week, both in our outdoor Adventure Park and indoor Activity Centre. We often host up to 12 separate parties per. Each party can be attended by up to 25 children. If just some of those guests were generous enough to donate an extra gift, the potential to help others would be huge.
“We hope children and their families will agree it is a lovely way to share the pleasure that celebrating a birthday brings.”
Conifox Adventure Park & Activity Centre, situated at Kirkliston on the outskirts of Edinburgh, caters for youngsters from 0 to 13 and is inviting donations of gifts suitable for that same age group. Only NEW toys can be donated and placed unwrapped, into the big Toy Box in the Activity Centre. Any donations of wrapping paper and gift bags will also be gratefully received.
“We are a family-owned company,” says Deborah, “and we have young children ourselves. We believe that the well-being of local children is a shared priority, and we are confident visitors to the Adventure Park & Activity Centre will join us in this initiative.”
Fiona Shapcott, Founder of local charity; Kids Love Clothes comments, “The Kids Love Clothes team is delighted to partner with Conifox on our Birthday Club initiative.” says Fiona, 'and giving toys is a natural extension of our core clothing service. As a wholly volunteer-led charity, we rely on the valuable support from businesses and individuals. Donated toys will be delivered in gift bags with the same care as our clothing gift bags, and with the community support, we will be able to reach even more children, giving them a birthday to remember.”