Sustainable Toy Swap event organised in the lead up to Christmas

A toy swap day will take place in Maydown Factory Shop this weekend to help those who may be struggling financially.

Fiona O’Neill, who has organised the event in conjunction with River Radio, explained how there is demand for the toy swap, which will run from 12noon to 5pm on Saturday, November 23.

Fiona, founder of the Facebook page Mums 2 Mums NI (previously Derry Mums), said: “I started the group as a support network for mums for advice. We now have 4,000 members. We ended up organising donations for local mums who were struggling financially, particularly when it comes to gas and electricity. Some families would need this or that and it's put to the people on the page to see if they can help them out. It has been difficult to provide that at times as we aren’t a registered charity. We have been inundated with requests for help now but unfortunately I don’t have the services to help everybody. I wish I had but what we can do is offer support and refer people to their community fridges or foodbanks. If they don’t want to go then somebody will go for them.

“After Christmas we are going to maybe try to push for charity status. It is such a good group. I have the idea of doing a 24 hour baby bank for mothers. It’s not something Derry has and I feel it’s desperately needed. If you are a new mum and you run out of milk in the middle of the night it can be tough. It would be great if you could go somewhere and get that or someone could bring it to you.

“I decided to do the toy swap pop up shop to help parents who may be struggling especially in the lead up to Christmas. I decided to do it to take the pressure off local parents. People are always trying to get new stuff for their kids for Christmas but I have spoken to people who love older toys. People often swap toys with the group. I have also spoken to a few mums with kids who have Autism. Sometimes the kids are breaking the new toys so it would be better to have older toys instead of paying hundreds of pounds on new ones. My goal was to get old, good quality toys and have families come and swap toys or make a donation to our chosen charity. So I collected all the toys and did a raffle. Lots of local businesses donated to the raffle and through that I was able to get all the supplies I needed for the day.

“Our chosen charity is the River Radio Appeal. They are a local registered charity who run a Toy Appeal every year. I spoke with Gerard Doherty who owns River Radio. I want to thank Gerard for making this possible. He got me the space to do the event and made it happen.

“There will be a kids play area, face painting, balloons and some Christmas music for the kids to dance to. As well as all that for the kids there will be tea, coffee and buns and a space to chat for parents. It will be good to get everyone out. Christmas doesn’t have to be new stuff every day. Any toys left over will go toward River Radio’s massive toy appeal. I really hope the day is successful and everyone enjoys it.”