More than 80,000 boxes given to 2023 Blythswood appeal

Blythswood’s 2023 Shoe Box Appeal sent 84,655 gift-filled boxes to eight countries in eastern Europe.

The last lorry left the Highland-based charity’s Kent sorting station on Friday (December 15), with 6,181 boxes for Ukraine. It was the third lorry-load of boxes for the country, where many of the recipients will be people displaced from their homes by the war.

Alan Swanson, Blythswood’s head of UK projects, said: “This year’s Shoe Box Appeal has been a great effort by donors and sorters and by all our staff and volunteers. I’m so glad that once again we have been able to send boxes  to Albania, Bulgaria, Hungary, Kosovo, Moldova, Romania, Serbia and Ukraine.”

Blythswood’s chief executive James Campbell recently returned from distributing boxes in Sliven, Bulgaria. He said: “It’s always deeply moving to see how much your gifts mean to the people who receive them. At a time when so many of our supporters are struggling to make ends meet at home, I want to thank you all for your generosity.”

Blythswood’s Shoe Box Appeal, which is supported by many Church of Scotland congregations, began in 1993 when 300 boxes were sent to Romania. This year’s appeal brings the total to over 2.6 million. Containing day-to-day essentials such as socks, toiletries, sweets and woolly hats, the boxes are distributed in orphanages, care homes, hospitals, Roma villages, refugee centres and prisons.