‘Our Easter egg project was hugely successful and we want to do it again for Xmas’

After the success of an Easter project that aimed to not leave any children without an Easter egg at that time, the organisers of that hugely popular appeal are now looking to repeat this again for Christmas.

Paige-Marie Crossman-Edwards led a Christmas project last year which helped 30 families across Yeovil and the local area and she is reaching out for people to be involved with her festive cause this time around.

Speaking to Somerset’s Alive!, Paige-Marie detailed her plans and how people can be part of the plans.

She said: “The aim for the Christmas project is to ensure that every child this year can experience the joy of opening a present or two and every family gets to enjoy sitting together as a family and having a Christmas dinner.

“Last year we helped 30 families with presents and food and worked on a 100% discreet policy so people felt safe in coming forward.”

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Paige-Marie continued to say that her next step would be engaging with people on social media and especially those who would like to reach out for help over the Xmas period.

She added: “I’m going to set up a Facebook page in which anyone in need can message directly too and the message will remain private. We will then use the community to source their needs and hand deliver the gifts.”

There are a few obstacles to overcome and Paige-Marie said: “We are yet to source a drop off point for donations but once we have one people can donate and we can have regular collections.

“We also have a storage unit where we store the gifts for the families until December when we start to drop off.”

Paige-Marie has taken heart from her successful Easter project which saw hundreds of chocolate eggs donated so that she could organise a huge Easter egg hunt in the town.

She said: “At Easter I hated the thought of a child going without an Easter egg, especially when they’re only £1. However to many, £1 is a load of bread or milk.

“We raised money via JustGiving pages and donations and bought 420 Easter eggs for Oaklands Primary School.

“We hid 400 eggs around Ninesprings [Yeovil Country Park] and hosted a free egg hunt for families to get out the house together and then on the Sunday we went down to the paths of Ninesprings and handed out over 500 mini chocolate eggs and bunnies.”

Paige-Marie ended by giving the reason why she likes to facilitate these projects. She told Somerset’s Alive!: “I genuinely enjoy helping others I’m fortunate enough to have a very comfortable life so I life to give back and hopefully my kids will learn that kindness is important.”