The iconic lights around the mast on the Weighbridge roundabout is a shining beacon of the Rotary Club’s present-giving campaign that aims to provide gifts to deserving children of families in financial difficulty or hardship.
‘This is a magical Christmas evening where we pull together our volunteers, sponsors and supporters,’ said Guernsey Rotary Club president Carla Bauer.
‘It’s a great thing for Guernsey to have all of these people creating such a wonderful, celebratory event, preparing us for Christmas.’
Each year, Rotary asks members of the public to provide items on the Christmas lists of children who may not be receiving presents this year. The names of the children have been written on tags, which islanders can find at various locations around the island, and exchange for gifts. It is estimated that over 16,000 local children have received that special present on Christmas Day, since the campaign was started by Rotarian Jerry Girard in 1994.
‘I brought it back from Australia,’ he said.
‘I went to the Rotary Club in Sydney and they had a big Tree of Joy in a mall – I don’t know if it’s still there. But I’m delighted to see it still happening here. We don’t normally deliver the present, but one year I had the chance to. This young lady came to the door, and burst into tears. She said “you have no idea what this means to me” – and I always remember that.’
The club asks for nominations of children who deserve the opportunity to press the big red button and illuminate the tree. This year the task was performed by eight-year-old, Willow Nash who suffers from a rare inherited metabolic disease.
‘I’m really proud of her,’ said her dad, Aaron.
‘She’s a really happy child, but she’s spent a lot of her time in hospital over the years. She’s struggled with her condition – which is called maple syrup urine disease. She’s the only person on the island to have it – it’s one in 400,000 in the world and there’s no cure. She’s on 7.5 grams of protein a day and needs regular blood tests. She’s amazing with it – it’s all she’s known – but occasionally, one of her friends will have a chocolate bar, and she’ll turn to me and say “I wish I was normal”.
‘Opportunities like this are really nice, and she’s been super excited about it. The whole Rotary Club has been amazing, and there are so many kids that deserve to have these chances, too.’
Willow is being supported by the Youth Commission, and was invited to turn on the tree live on television, from a reception hosted by the campaign’s sponsors Butterfield, PwC and Savills.
Alongside the campaign, the club will be holding flag days today and tomorrow to raise funds to purchase Christmas hampers to give to deserving families over the festive period.
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