Breakfast and Toys for 1,500 Children [SSM21_1929]

Abstract

Newspaper article from 1929. Transcript below:

SHEPHERD-STREET MISSION.
BREAKFAST AND TOYS FOR 1,500 CHILDREN.
SANTA CLAUS HAS A BUSY DAY.
The goodwill of Yuletide found full expression in the neighbourhood of Shepherd-street Mission. Amongst the earliest visitors on Christmas morning were the Mayor and Mayoress, who found hundreds of young people waiting expectantly in the early morning drizzle for the good things which the generosity of friends had provided.
Each child on entering the room was handed a substantial parcel containing meat pies, cakes, nuts and fruit; and then passed on towards Father Christmas, who smiled benignly and presented the delighted youngster with a handsome toy. That was the whole of the ceremonial- but what an impressiveness it attained!

CHRISTMAS GIFTS
The great mounds of parcels dissolved as if into thin air; the toys disappeared almost magically, and when the perspiring missioner and his equally energetic helpers – they had worked well into the night to get this feast for the multitude in readiness- had completed their task, 1,500 deserving children had been provided with the material needs for a happy Christmas.
Some people are inclined to chafe under the many calls that come to them at this period of the year for charitable objects, but those who help to make this charitable breakfast such an outstanding success get a handsome reward in the knowledge that a great happiness is provided temporarily in hundreds of homes where poverty has got a foothold. All the children who were provided with breakfast had been carefully chosen, the school teachers of the town enabling the mission to ascertain where necessity exists.
The role of Santa Claus was undertaken by Mr. John Kenyon, who has had a long association with the Mission, and amongst those present giving the children a happy time was the chairman of the Mission, Mr. W. Margerison, Mr. T. A Slater (the Missioner), Mrs. Chadwick (the matron), and helpers and friends.

IN THE HOME.
The children resident in the Mission’s Homes, this year, numbered 46, and these infants had a really wonderful time. They were up a little earlier than usual in order that the day of merry making should be extended, and the time between breakfast and dinner was wiled away in seasonable style. The dinner, provided by the boys attending the Preston Grammar School, was everything that Christmas dinner ought to be. Games were afterwards arranged and toys played with until tea-time, when the present residents were joined by 18 former Mission boys and girls who are now making their way in the outside world. It was a very merry party indeed, with Father Christmas to cheer those present with his good humour and generous gifts from a richly-embellished Christmas Tree.
A memorable Christmas indeed in the Shepherd-street district.