St Richard's Interact Club aid Mustard Seed Mission

Bexhill Rotary have co-ordinated the local effort this year with boxes being collected by St Richard's, St Mary's, King Offa and Claremont schools, as well as St Augustine's Church and the residents of The Sackville, plus the Rotarians themselves.

This all totalled 543 boxes from very generous local families, a good increase on last year.

The Interact Club promoted the effort through St Richard's and collected a total of 65 boxes.

During their visit to Eastbourne they saw them being sorted into age groups and packed into distribution boxes for transport.

This year's total looks like being a record and could approach 60,000.

The boxes, which are directed to specific age ranges for both boys and girls, contain donated gifts including toys,sweets, hats, gloves and scarves etc.

These are then festive gift wrapped and delivered to Mustard Seed. Using lorries that are returning empty otherwise, the boxes are transported to needy areas of The Balkans and Eastern Europe, where they are distributed directly to the children by Mustard Seed personnel. The gifts are likely to be the only present any of the children will receive.

Mustard Seed and Rotary would like to thank everybody who contributed to this very worthwhile cause.

*Pictures show volunteers at the Mustard Seed warehouse in Eastbourne sorting boxes.