Hit kids movie Toy Story 3 has inspired St Elizabeth Hospice to launch a campaign to get abandoned playthings donated and given a new lease of life.
The Hospice’s eleven shops are staging a two-month Toy Amnesty from 1st September to get parents having an end of summer clear-out, kids, pre-schools and playgroups to hand in the toys children have outgrown.
Donations will be sold in special toy sections of the shops across East Suffolk from October half term, to raise money for the charity. Children’s activities will be laid on during the school break at the shop in Hawthorn Drive, Ipswich, to mark the toys sale.
In the popular film Toy Story 3, Woody, Buzz Lightyear and the toy-box gang fear being abandoned by their owner Andy, 17, who is preparing to go to college and has outgrown them. They end up on the rubbish truck before battling to have a new lease of life and played with again and this inspired the Hospice to launch the campaign.
Jason Rudderham, the Hospice’s retail sales manager, said: “As the school holidays come to a close many parents will be having an end of summer clear out and we would ask them to dig out any unused good quality toys and donate them to us. We will put them on sale in our shops and hope they will get a new lease of life with whoever buys them. As the Christmas present buying season approaches we will be selling the toys.”
Donations of broken or incomplete toys cannot be accepted.
The Hospice has eleven shops in East Suffolk, including five in Ipswich and others at Woodbridge, Saxmundham, Felixstowe, Leiston, Hadleigh and Stowmarket. Toys can also be donated to the Hospice’s distribution centre in Rapier Street, on the Riverside Industrial Estate, Ipswich, where there is plenty of parking.
The Toy Amnesty follows a successful Wedding Wear amnesty which attracted thousands of pounds of donated outfits which were sold in special wedding departments set up at the Hospice shops in Dog’s Head Street, Ipswich, and Saxmundham. To find out more call 01473 723600 or email enquiries@stelizabethhospice.org.uk