Hartshead, Hightown, Roberttown and Scholes have sent over 60 teddies and £375 of cash donations to help provide comfort and support to child refugees currently seeking shelter in Europe.
Project Paddington encouraged children from the churches, schools, local organisations to gather teddy bears which would be sent to children who are fleeing their home countries with their families.
The Revd Richard Burge, Vicar of Hartshead, Hightown, Roberttown and Scholes, says, “We launched the collection here in the middle of our two ‘Refugee Prayer Sundays’.
“One of our Readers led our monthly Creative Prayer evenings in the summer and helped us to think that night about the refugee situation and our response to it – the need to pray and to pray hard.
“That led us to focus our Sunday morning services on that theme too, to get more people praying hard about this situation and all those who are involved.
“We have four churches so we had Refugee Sunday at Roberttown and Hartshead one week and then at Scholes and Hightown the next week.
“We launched the Teddy appeal in those services and people had a month to bring us their teddies!”
Tubby Tigger (left), Revd Richard's teddy, will be joining the other bears on the journey to Europe.
“I think the biggest thing for me was that it enabled us to do something that makes a difference to the people on the ground,” Revd Richard continues.
“It was great to add to our prayers this additional act of kindness – and something which has come from our churches, our schools, our pre-school our Brownies and Rainbows – it has really been something that has been picked up by lots of different people within our community who have wanted to make a difference too.”
Over a few weeks, the parishes had gathered over 60 teddies and £375 of cash donations which joined Tubby Tigger, Revd Richard’s teddy, and were sent on their way.
“Soon the teddies that left our benefice will hopefully be bringing smiles to children who are a long way from their homes,” Revd Richard says.
The teddies’ journey began on Thursday 19th November and they are making stops at Sheffield and Kent where they will be joined by countless other bears that have been donated by children across the UK before travelling across to mainland Europe.
Revd Richard explains, “Our teddies will end up anywhere that there is a refugee camp, anywhere that there are children many miles from their homes, who we hope will know that when they get a teddy that there is someone who is thinking of them.
“One of them had a label on which read ‘When you hug me, remember that someone loves you’.”
Tubby Tigger is welcomed by Clint, one of the Project Paddington co-ordinators in Sheffield (right)
Project Paddington is an initiative set up by a group of mums in Sheffield who wanted to provide an opportunity for children to respond to the current crisis amongst refugees.
The local children began giving their teddy bears to Project Paddington, with notes and pictures, which were then sent to child refugees in Europe, showing them that children in the UK care and want to give their support.
To find out more about Project Paddington, please visit the website here: http://projectpaddington.com/about-us/