YOUNGSTERS at a Barnard Castle primary school answered the call to “deliver joy” to those less fortunate this Christmas by donating a raft of gifts.
For the fourth-year, homewares retailer Dunelm Stores, which has a branch in Darlington, launched its Delivering Joy campaign earlier this month.
Shoppers simply took a pre-written tag from the store’s Christmas tree, that details a much-needed gift tailored to a local anonymous person, refugees and those living in refuges.
Shoppers then returned the appropriate gift before December 11 with the original tag after which it is forwarded to the individual in need.
When St Mary’s RC Primary School teaching assistant Claudia Holywell spotted the gift tree during a shopping trip to the store, she picked up a few tags.
She said: “Dunelm are doing this initiative to deliver joy.
“I saw some of the tags and took a few that I could provide presents for.”
She added: “I thought how good would it be if I could get the whole school involved?”
The school adopted the idea to celebrate the start of Advent and in less than a week staff, pupils and their families twinned the tags with a large number of gifts.
Ms Holywell added: “They have been amazing.
“Some of the children have spent some of their pocket money to buy these gifts. It’s things like selection boxes, toiletries and socks.
“When we asked the children what they hoped to get for Christmas they said things like Xboxes and PlayStations.
“The tags we picked were for things like cosy socks and some people just asked for a candle.
“I think it has made the children, and all of us, realise just how lucky we are. It is beautiful that everyone has been so generous.”
![A COUNTY councillor is backing a campaign to get a pedestrian crossing in Staindrop. Frustrated parish councillors in the village summoned their county council representative Cllr George Richardson to their latest meeting to discuss several issues, including the call for a safe way to cross the A688. Earlier this year their request for a crossing was turned down by the county council’s highways officers. Parish council chairman Jonothan Raper described the reasons for the refusal as “spurious” and called on Cllr Richardson to support their campaign. He added: “One of the arguments they made was there is no clear line of desire when they studied the village – well this isn’t a clear line of desire because there isn’t a crossing, people cross whenever they can. “When the lollipop person was there, one of the things I noticed was people would walk all the way down to the lollipop person to cross the road to go to the shop or to go to the school.” He added a problem of parking at the primary school is exacerbated because people are too afraid to walk their children across the road. Cllr Richardson said he had supported previous attempts for a crossing point with the first being made about 15 years ago. He added: “We went fairly well down the road with that and they looked into it. The only recommended place was where the bus stop is and to get the visibility splays, people on the other side of the road would lose their parking. “That didn’t go down well so it just died a death.” Cllr Raper said he suspected the real reason for the officers’ refusal was the cost of installing a crossing. He added that much of the cost could be recovered from savings made on not having to employ a lollipop patrol. Cllr Raper said: “A lollipop person only provides a benefit of crossing for three hours of the day. You are getting 21 extra hours of crossing time [with a pedestrian crossing].” Cllr Richardson said he would raise the issue with the county council’s cabinet member for highways, Cllr John Shuttleworth.](https://teesdalemercury.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/georgeR-120x86.jpg)
