A combined project involving Balclutha Round Table, the Salvation Army and local businesses meant 58 gifts were distributed to the children of families experiencing financial hardship this year.
In common with each of the past four years, the project began with the ''Spirit of Christmas Giving Tree'', Round Table member and Westpac Balclutha bank manager Mike Curtis said.
''We put a tree up in the bank around the beginning of December with cards on it, which allow donors to receive a discount on appropriate kids' gifts at our local Warehouse branch. Those gifts are then wrapped and returned by donors to the tree, from where we deliver them to Salvation Army in time for Christmas preparations.''
The gifts were then checked and rewrapped by a team of volunteers, before being distributed with special seasonal foodbank hampers.
The gift total of 58 reflected a slight drop in the number of children requiring a Giving Tree gift this year (61 in 2017), but there was no room for complacency regarding the financial and other challenges many families were facing, Mr Curtis said.
