News
26 November, 2024
Brighter toys for kids
A Wamuran based organisation is helping brighten up Christmas for foster and disadvantaged children in Moreton Bay, having delivered nearly 1,700 Christmas gifts for 2024, from Caboolture to Strathpine and everywhere in between.
Kerri Raedel formed Bright Bags in August 2022, after seeing a need for a children-specific charity in the Moreton Bay region.
“We pack bags full of brand-new items for children in need - covering children entering the foster system, children in the foster system, children referred to us by schools and other organisations,” Ms Raedel said.
“We believe it is very important to fill children’s hearts up - so that whatever situation they are in, whatever trauma, little or big, whatever they are feeling, they can be uplifted and reminded they are important, they are loved and we care.”
Bright Bags, run under the incorporated name Raedel Support Group Inc, receive direct requests via phone calls or emails from the Department of Child Safety, foster service organisations, schools, and other referrals.
Kerri and her handy volunteers then collect items donated directly by the community through their yellow bins, where they unpack the donations, pack the bags and deliver them directly to the organisation that reached out.
“We source our items 100 per cent from the community - we have our yellow bins around the community and people pop in donations into our bins and we collect it,” she said.
“We are beyond grateful to our wonderful community, as well as other non-for-profits who donate money directly to us.”
Bright Bags pack three bags throughout the year, on top of Christmas bags, including Essential Bags, Birthday Bags, and Hygiene Bags - delivering these upon requests from the organisations.
The year-long bags are more like kits, having multiple items and gifts the child can use and enjoy.
For Christmas, the organisations send Bright Bags a ‘wishlist,’ with every child specifying what gift it would like.
“We’re a very personal charity. We don’t want to just throw the children a present, because it uplifts them to get something they actually wished for,” Ms Raedel said.
Once they got the wishlist, Bright Bags went out into the community, with each community member ‘sponsoring’ a child by buying what the child wished for.
All the Christmas gifts were wrapped by Kerri and volunteers, with 1,689 gifts donated and wrapped.
Since its founding two years ago, Bright Bags has grown dramatically, having only started with two tables, six plastic tubs, and servicing one organisation.
They now have a shed on Kerri’s property, with multiple boxes and stock, servicing over ten Moreton Bay organisations.
Volunteer Tanya Fitzpatrick said she is “blown away” by what the organisation does.
“I can’t believe what people do, it’s just amazing,” Ms Fitzpatrick said.
“We have people who sew teddy bears and bags to donate and it’s just great what the community does.”
Given the growing demand, Bright Bags is looking for more volunteers to help sort donations and pack bags in 2025, with operations now closing for Christmas and re-opening in February.
Anyone interested in volunteering in the new year on a Monday and/or Tuesday can email raedelsg@gmail.com.
