More than 100 soldiers, school pupils and volunteers packed 2,500 special Christmas boxes for military children who have a parent deployed overseas with the armed forces this December.
It was organised by military children’s charity, Little Troopers, as part of its Christmas Smiles campaign. Each box was filled with stocking fillers, resources and activities to help children cope with parental separation during the festive season.
More than 7,000 service personnel were deployed on military operations over Christmas last year and it’s expected a similar number will be serving overseas this year, meaning thousands of children miss seeing a parent on at school plays, family get-togethers and on Christmas morning.
Charity founder Louise Fetigan explained: “These boxes are all about helping military children to feel recognised and supported. Christmas is a tough time to have a parent away from home and we want to bring Christmas Smiles to as many children as we can.”
Military personnel from around the country, including North Yorkshire, Wiltshire, Lincolnshire, Oxfordshire and Somerset travelled to Dorset on the day to collect the boxes so they can be distributed to families before Christmas leave. Little Troopers is also posting out 600 boxes to individual families. Families can now apply for these boxes until 6 December.
Sgt Mark Conway, Unit Welfare Officer for the Army Training Regiment in Grantham said: “It’s taken me 4 and a half hours to come and collect boxes for our families today, but any bit of support like this does make a massive difference; you don’t feel so lonely, you don’t feel so isolated and you feel supported and valued.”
Funding for the boxes was provided by BAE Systems and VIVO Defence Services.
Little Troopers has organised a range of activities as part of the campaign, including free cinema screenings at ODEON cinemas, a storytelling event with the Chelsea Pensioners, elf workshop and an online panto.