Sesame Lane sends Christmas cheer to children in out of home care with toy drive

Children and families from Sesame Lane Care & Kindergarten recently ran a Christmas Toy Drive in support of The Pyjama Foundation, collecting gifts for children who are in out of home care. 

 

The Pyjama Foundation provides gifts each year for children who are involved in the Foundation’s Love of Learning program, which is the only service of its type supporting children in care with evidence-based literacy and numeracy programs in the out-of-school environment in Australia.

 

Designed to empower children in out of home care with learning, life skills and confidence to change the direction of their lives, the program pairs children in need of support with volunteers, known as ‘pyjama angels.’

 

Angels are screened, trained, recruited and then matched with a child in Foster Care. Together, they spend an hour a week reading books aloud, playing educational games and engaging in fun activities. A Pyjama Angel’s role is to provide consistent love and support, and most importantly, instill a love of learning in children.

 

Children, families and educators at each of Sesame Lane’s 14 Services collect new gifts and toys which were picked up in Sesame Lane minibuses and delivered to The Pyjama Foundation head office in Albion in time for their volunteers to sort, wrap, name and organise the gifts for each child in their program. 

Sesame Lane has been supporting The Pyjama Foundation in several ways for the last five years, Kerri Smith, Head of Sesame Lane shared. 

 

“We were impressed by the generosity of our families and employees. Not only was 2021 one of the biggest collections of toys we’ve delivered to The Pyjama Foundation, but what really surprised us this year is that the contributions were quality toys and gifts, such as someone contributed JB HiFi vouchers for teens, which we know are hard to buy for.” 

 

A number of local businesses also came forward to support Sesame Lane’s efforts. Fitstop Redcliffe, Bunnings Rothwell and The Toy Outlet all contributed to the toy drive. 

 

“We really are humbled; the spirit of giving is strong with our community,” Ms Smith said in closing. 

 

To learn more about the valuable work of the Foundation please see here.