20 November, 2017

“Christmas time is a time to share!” says Kylie Jensen, year 5 teacher at Northpine Christian College in Queensland.

“Sadly, many children each Christmas not only miss out on a gift, but also go without food.”

This sad reality of poverty and hardship was what compelled Kylie to organise a Christmas Tree fundraiser at her school last year.

“Each year, students in my class have raised money for the ADRA Christmas Appeal,” Kylie says.

The class has raised between $200-$300 each year. Students are encouraged to be creative in raising money, including taking on extra chores around home or helping their neighbours.

ChristmasTree2

The class then uses the donations to purchase life-changing gifts from ADRA’s gift catalogue, by taking a gift tag off the tree and purchasing the gift.

“You can be any age to be the hands and feet of Jesus,” Kylie says.

The gifts available are many and varied: a $2 exercise book for a young student in Malawi; a $10 hot meal for an Australian doing it tough; a $45 beehives for a woman in Africa to produce honey and earn a living, a $125 wheelbarrow for a cocoa farmer in the Pacific to multiply their yields. Each one has a role in helping people thrive.

Organise a Christmas tree fundraiser

School chaplain, Neil Redman, helped organise a Christmas Tree fundraiser at the school’s staff party last year. He says the process was easy: “I just jumped online, filled in a few contact details and the kits were posted out with instructions to make it work.”

Mr Redman chose to run the fundraiser instead of the usual gift exchange between staff.

“While previous events we had were fun, we wanted to move past buying gifts for each other that probably were never used.”

And the process was a rewarding one for all the staff, he says.

“We all felt like we had made a difference to someone else.”

ADRA would like to sincerely thank all students, staff and parents at Northpine Christian College!

Now it’s your turn to help others thrive this Christmas. Why not organise an ADRA Christmas Tree fundraiser at your school, church or workplace?

Register today to receive your kit!

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Beth Morrow is an intern at ADRA Australia

Tags:  Australia, Donations,