With December now underway, the core events of the seventh Glentoran FC Christmas Homeless Appeal are imminent. Since 2013, Glentoran Football Club has implemented a Christmas appeal to provide gifts, food, clothes and other necessities for members of the homeless community in Belfast and for pensioners and lower income families within the club’s home of East Belfast.
Events supporting the appeal this month are:
Sunday 8th December: players from the Glentoran first team squad, the treble cup winning Glentoran Women’s team and club volunteers will have a sleepout at the Oval from pm-midnight and afterwards at the Westbourne Glentoran Supporters Clubrooms until 7am.
Tuesday 10th December: A Christmas Dinner for 100 local pensioners in the Westbourne Clubrooms, 3 Solway Street, Newtownards Road. Starts at 7pm.
Friday 13th December: Children’s Christmas Party in the Connswater/Ballymacarrett Community Centre, Ballymacarrett Walkway.
Saturday 14th December: Final collection of items at Glentoran v Crusaders match at the Oval. The collection point will be located in the main carpark (at the directors' entrance) before and during the match.
Wednesday 18th December – Christmas Eve: Glentoran players and supporters will distribute items (including Christmas Hampers, electricity top-ups, meal vouchers and toys – to local families on low incomes and pensioners.
Monday 22nd December: Hostel and Street Vigil: Players from the Glentoran first team and women’s team alongside club directors and volunteers will visit Belfast’s homeless centres and also the city centre to distribute Christmas gifts to those in need.
Jodie Killops of the Glentoran Milk Bar, who has led the Christmas Appeal for all of its seven years, said today: “Glentoran has been a community-based club since its formation in 1882. At Christmas the club, its volunteers and supporters want to once again give real, meaningful support to those all over Belfast who are less fortunate than us. The time we spend visiting homeless hostels last Christmas, has shown us just how much a visit and a small gift can mean to someone. We know that members of both the Glentoran Family and the wider East Belfast community will show their community spirit and donate as generously to the Glentoran Christmas Appeal for the Homeless, as they’ve done in previous years”.
Drop off points for gifts or other necessary items will be at the Glentoran Superstore or Milk Bar at the Oval, Parkgate Drive, and the Westbourne Glentoran Supporters Club, 3 Solway Street, Newtownards Road. Opening hours for the Glentoran Superstore are available here
Items most urgently needed include: Tinned Meat, Tinned Fish, Tinned Vegetables, Tinned Fruit, Tinned Soup, Tea Bags, Fray Bentos Pies, Coffee, Biscuits, Shloer, Selection Boxes, Jam, Marmalade, Red and Brown Sauce, Cranberry Sauce, Christmas Puddings & Christmas Crackers.
Other items of interest include male and female gift sets, tubs of sweets and boxes of chocolate.
Plus, toys, of course.
Anyone unable to get to East Belfast can make a donation via PayPal here
