In November 2015, a 12 year old girl from Annbank asked her mum if every child got a Night Before Christmas Box like her. Her mum, Jodie McFarlane, explained “not every child is as lucky as she is, some children don’t get anything at Christmas time”. She was saddened by this and asked her mum to help her to make boxes for children in their local area so they could feel the same magic at Christmas that she does, Jodie and her mum, Isabella Mcfarlane started a small campaign. They collected and distributed 90 boxes with only weeks to spare before Christmas.
In 2016, Jodie and Isabella continued their night before Christmas campaign and made it their mission to spread the Christmas spirit beyond Annbank and Ayrshire. Jodie’s friend Gail Fisher and her daughter Taylor Fisher joined the team to lead collections and distributions in Renfrewshire and Glasgow. We were overwhelmed by the amount of support we got from the individuals and organisations, who helped us smash our target of 250 boxes, we distributed 593 boxes. On a cold November morning, we spent hours in Glasgow giving out food, hats, gloves and hot drink vouchers (all of which were donated) to the homeless. It really opened our eyes and we were shocked to see how many people are currently sleeping rough on Glasgow's streets. At this point we decided we had to do as much as we could to help and we started collecting backpacks for the homeless and took the decision to register as a charity to take forward our mission.
