A trio of West Ham United players showed their support for Ambition Aspire Achieve’s Kevin Jenkins OBE Newham Christmas Toy Appeal with a visit last week.
Defender Kurt Zouma was joined by Academy youngsters Will Greenidge and Remy Coddington at the Appeal’s headquarters in Stratford to help select and pack toys to be distributed to local children in need.
Ambition Aspire Achieve (AAA) is an official charity partner of the Hammers and delivers a wide range of projects and services from their two hubs and across local communities in Newham. Their work particularly focuses on and supports children and young people most in need, including those with disabilities or additional needs.
Part of their work in Newham is the Christmas Toy Appeal, now in its 45th year and named in honour of the charity’s founder, the late Kevin Jenkins OBE.
Each child supported will be experiencing the ravages of poverty each and every day, compounded by their own combination of multiple difficulties and challenges, such as poor and/or temporary accommodation, food hunger, poor wellbeing, emotional needs, educational underachievement, behavioural difficulties, disability and/or additional needs, being a victim of personal abuse, violence or bereavement. Without support, a Christmas Day to enjoy would not be possible.
AAA will be aiming to provide for each child a Christmas stocking of gifts specific to their age, needs, abilities and wherever possible, their most wished for gift to open on Christmas morning, allowing them to experience a real Christmas Day, rather than just another day the same as every other.
Zouma was only too happy to provide his support for such a worthy cause, both by helping the volunteers on site and delivering a donation of toys, scarves and Hammers goodies from the Club.
“We have been preparing some gifts for some kids who unfortunately wouldn’t otherwise have the chance to have them,” he explained. “This is a beautiful idea to help these young people have the chance like the others.
“I have young kids myself, aged four, seven and eight, so I know how it feels for them. They want Santa to come and give them some presents, so it means a lot to me to be able to help other kids out. Kids give you joy, they give you everything you need, so you just want to make them happy and see them smile – that’s your gift.
“This is a family Club and we are trying to make gifts for other people as well, which is important.”
For 18-year-old forward Coddington, he too was humbled by the opportunity to make a difference for local children, as part of the Club’s Players’ Project.
He added: “We’ve learned about this great charity, giving these gifts to young children in the local area. We’ve been picking out some presents for the kids who don’t have ways to get presents otherwise, so it’s been great being able to help.
“It makes you think about how we might take stuff for granted. Me being a young kid, I’ve been brought up having Christmas presents all the time, so being here and seeing all these presents for the less fortunate makes you feel honoured to be a part of it.”
Ambition Aspire Achieve chief executive Jonny Boux explained that support for the Appeal this year is even more important than ever before.
“The Appeal now is being needed more than ever, from the previous 44 Appeals,” he said. “We’re receiving more referrals and requests for help from families and children in need than ever before.
“It’s been amazing to have Kurt, Will and Remy here to help out today. Having anything to do with West Ham players really helps to raise the profile of the Appeal.
“Newham is a unique borough in many ways. It has huge opportunity and areas of great wealth, yet the shocking stat is that around 50 per cent of the children in Newham are growing up in poverty.
“So, to have that imbalance of huge wealth and opportunity, and then poverty and depravation, we feel that shouldn’t exist. That’s partly why we do what we do, to address that.
“Through the past six years, West Ham have always helped the Toy Appeal, they’ve helped promote other causes as well, so we are very proud to be one of West Ham’s chosen charities and we really do appreciate the support and link with the Club.”
The charity’s operations manager and Christmas co-ordinator Paula Blake was thrilled to be able to add Zouma, Greenidge and Coddington to her army of around 100 volunteers for the campaign.
“We have around 100 volunteers working on the Appeal, through different organisations and different corporate groups, through staff who have given up their free time,” said Blake.
“The volunteers we’ve had here from West Ham today have been great! They’ve taken on board what we’ve said and have embraced it, showing a really good understanding of the Appeal.
“They’ve done a lot of bags between them, so that’s plenty of families they’ve helped out.
“We are desperately in need [for more help this year], so anyone who can make any kind of donation can go to our website, where we have a JustGiving page. Anything that anybody can do to promote the Appeal is much needed this year, even more so than ever.”
To support the Kevin Jenkins OBE Newham Christmas Toy Appeal, please visit https://www.justgiving.com/campaign/KevinJenkinsChristmasAppeal2022, where any cash donations are converted into gifts to fill Christmas stockings and make a difference for Newham’s most disadvantaged, vulnerable and at-risk children.
