Lumen Christi pupils Christmas shoe box appeal sees 500 parcels sent to children of Ukraine 

Staff and pupils at Derry's Lumen Christi College have recently held an extremely successful shoe box appeal.

The generosity of the staff, students and parents saw nearly 500 shoe boxes donated to the cause which left in the lorry for Ukraine last Wednesday.

There were hundreds of shoe box donations made within minutes of the collection opening 

Mrs McCaffrey and Mrs Hughes first pitched the idea to the school after meeting a gentleman, Peter, who had seen the war first hand.

He explained the direct effect on families and children who are without electricity and water.

Mrs McCaffrey, Head of Year 8 at Lumen Christi, explained that chatting with him really opened her eyes and she immediately wanted to do something to help, "On the 30th of September, Peter came and spoke to the class. He expressed with real compassion the trauma on every side of the war; the human stories," she explained.

"We hear of children down in basements with candles with little to nothing and the children and staff were profoundly touched."

The pupils and staff of Lumen Christi College chose to donate to the children of Ukraine for this year's shoe box appeal

Lumen Christi College hosts a shoe box appeal every year and has donated to multiple charities over the years. This year they decided to collect Christmas shoe boxes for the children of Ukraine.

Mrs McCaffrey continued: "We completely read out the Lost and Found and Danny Glee - who is working to support Ukrainian families in Donegal - had extra stuff too which we donated to Peter's collection.

"We didn't want to put pressure on families in the area either, times are tough but everyone was so generous when we told everyone about the appeal.

"Grannies and aunties were involved; knitting things. One child wrote "Happy Christmas'' in Ukrainian on their box, another teacher brought in eight boxes; it really was beautiful."

Every box had inside it something to cuddle, something to draw with, something to play with, something to wear, something to wash with and then another little extra for the child receiving the gift. Every box was then labelled based on age range.

Mrs McCaffrey said: "Everybody did an amazing job. On the day of collection, within 20 minutes of registration there were so many boxes already.

"It was such a lovely feeling watching the boxes pile up high. It was a great experience for the school. 

"The boxes were such a pile of joy for students and staff alike. The children realised we are very lucky here, even though everyone has their own troubles."

Mrs McCaffrey said the whole experience had a powerful effect on the students and everyone was very touched by the generosity of the students.

Mrs McCaffrey added: "I told the students after the boxes were collected, 'We have an empty table in the Assembly Hall and now hopefully the children in Ukraine will have a full heart.'

"We are so proud of the school; the children were so happy to help others. Everyone in the area is always so generous. We just hope we can do our bit."