Annual Toy Appeal hailed as major success

Creggan man Gerard Doherty “deserves a medal” for his “above and beyond” efforts to ensure no child in Derry or Strabane went without a toy this Christmas.

Those were the words of former charity worker, Debbie Lamberton, who was previously involved with Paul’s Campaign raising awareness of Sarcoma Cancer.

Debbie said an “amazing” Gerard was distributing “top of the range” toys donated to the annual River Radio Toy Appeal, right into the early hours of Christmas Eve, in Creggan.

She explained: “I work closely with community representatives here, including Tony and Shauna. We normally get together every Christmas to provide financial support for things like gas, electricity, oil and food - urgently needed as a result of the Cost of Living Crisis.

“We were getting requests for toys but we had very few so I reached out to Gerard and asked about the possibility of getting toys from his Toy Appeal.

“He didn’t hesitate. Because he’s a Creggan man, he said we could have the donations to the Holy Child primary school here, which normally goes to River Radio - an absolutely fantastically generous gesture.

“For every toy request I got, Gerard just asked, ‘What do you need? What ages are the children’. Everything I asked for toys wise, right down to the appropriate ages was delivered,” said Debbie, who added: “We looked after Creggan people and if I hadn’t reached out to Gerard and he hadn’t responded, we would not have been able to accommodate families, without a shadow of a doubt.”

Speaking to Derry Now however, a modest Gerard credited the idea of the annual Christmas Toy Appeal to his daughter Yazmin (7).

“One day, when Yazmin was three, we were sitting watching TV and an ad came on for a Christmas Appeal, maybe for Trócaire, and she asked me if we could do something similar through the radio station. I said to her, ‘That’s not a bad idea’. So, we decided to run with the Toy Appeal and it just grew and grew and grew.

“Last year we helped 7,000 families - 7,000 kids with Christmas presents. And then this year, there was a 25% increase. We provided toys for more than 9,000 kids in the North West.

“Our Toy Appeal charity partner is the Salvation Army. They help us to distribute the toys, in order to ensure accountability. Our toy partners were Toytown in Lisnagelvin Shopping Centre and Smyths Toy Store on Strand Road. They were our drop-off locations, where people could buy an extra toy and put it in the basket, for us to collect, sort and distribute.

“In addition, there were 25 local businesses, schools and community groups and people involved in this year’s Toy Appeal, as well as stalwarts like Derry City and Strabane District councillors, Ryan McCready and Darren Guy,” said Gerard. “Everybody was focused on helping everybody.”

Planning for the annual Christmas Toy Appeal starts in August.

“Before people are talking about Hallowe’en, we’ve already got our drop-off locations lined up,” laughed Gerard. “We bring all the donations to our lock-up unit, provided free of charge by Ustore Depot in Maydown, to get organised. We even have Yazmin on the forklift, lifting the toys.”