Commuters donate toys to local charity (From St Albans & Harpenden Review)

Commuters donate toys to local charity

3:00pm Wednesday 19th December 2012 in News By Zoe Forsey, Senior Reporter

Train passengers have donated more than 100 toys to help spread a little Christmas cheer to children in St Albans.

Home Start St Albans, a charity that offers emotional support to families across the area, asked commuters who pass through the district’s train stations to donate a toy.

Volunteers handed out gift tags earlier this month and on Monday 120 people brought the tags back attached to a present.

Andy West, who helped organise Alban Play Station, said: “It set out to connect the commuters back to their home towns, to buy an extra gift for local children and to raise the profile of Home-Start locally.

“We succeeded on all 3 goals magnificently. Many thanks to the First Capital Connect commuters for their generosity."

The toys will now be passed on to the families working with Home Start St Albans.

Sally Patterson, scheme manager at the charity, said: “The response from commuters has been amazing. Not only have we received some lovely gifts for our Home-Start families this Christmas, but so many more local people are now aware of the work that we do.”