A GOODWILL initiative organised by Valley End Cricket Club to deliver food hampers and presents has been given a festive thumbs-up.

“Our Chari-tree initiative was a great success,” said Brian Barr, the facilities manager. “We received donations of money, gifts and food worth over £5,500 in addition to over 100 presents left by our members under our tree for the children.”

The club arranged a socially distanced event at its pavilion to gift wrap the donations. Then, in conjunction with local schools, it delivered food hampers to 32 homes and supplied Christmas bags of presents to 62 children. It also gave presents to the Children With Special Needs Foundation, to reach more than another 100 children.

“In total we delivered over 500 Christmas presents,” said Brian. “Delivery of the food and presents to some very needy families in Chobham, Windlesham and Bagshot was a very emotional experience for a number of our club members. They were greeted with gratitude, thanks and comments such as ‘Christmas was not going to happen this year until you turned up’ and ‘I just want to say a massive thank you to everyone involved in putting together the food parcel, the voucher and the gifts for the girls. We really appreciate it’.”