Thanks to the nimble fingered residents of York who have donated over 800 stockings to this years Santa’s socks appeal we now need more sweets to fill them all!
These will then be given to those who are the most in need across the city.
The Santa’s Socks initiative is a community arts project organised by the council’s York Learning team. The project encourages groups and individuals to make stockings which will be filled with sweets and stationery items. They will then be donated to food banks across the city, IDAS, (Independent Domestic Abuse Service) and homeless shelters for young people. Extra stocking will be donated to changing lives organisations.
Due to the overwhelmingly generous response we’re asking residents and businesses to donate sweets to help fill the stockings. People are asked to ensure that the sweets will still be in date by 30 December 2017 and that they have all the wrapping intact, but not wrapped in Christmas paper.
Cllr Ann Reid, interim executive member for culture, leisure and tourism, said: “The Santa’s socks project is now in its fourth year and has once again exceeded all expectations! I’d like to thank everyone who has donated their time and effort to make these fantastic stockings.
“We now need more sweets than we expected to fill them all. We’ve already had several large donations of sweets from Barnitts, York Lions and many from local residents. I hope even more people will donate sweets and help to make a real difference to those most in need this Christmas.”
Santa’s Socks is one of many York Learning community arts projects, which this year included PolliNation. It is part of the wider Telling the Bees research project which aims to highlight the falling number of honey bees.
Residents are asked to hand in sweets by 12 noon Tuesday 19 December to the councils West Offices or York Explore Libraries.
For more information about the project email Claire Douglas on santassocks@york.gov.uk. People are also being urged to share pictures of their socks with York Learning on Facebook or Twitter where they can be retweeted or shared to inspire others.