IT was all hands on deck at Veritas House's Bentinck Street office on Monday as some special Christmas hampers came together.
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The local charity - which provides accommodation and support services to children, young people and their families - has received a $5000 donation from the Bathurst RSL for the second year in a row and is putting it to good use.
"This year's donation is being used to make 35 $100 hampers for young people who have experienced homelessness or left foster care and are living independently in the community and also families who are doing it tough," Veritas business development manager Narelle Stocks said.
"We have got the 35 hampers that we will make up and then we've got 25 from the 2BS Miracle Appeal, so there's 60 hampers that we'll deliver across the region."
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In addition, $500 from the Bathurst RSL donation will be used to fund a Christmas food spread for young people in Veritas crisis accommodation and residential accommodation and $1000 will pay for holiday activities for the same young people.
Ms Stocks said the community had also shown generous support for the Veritas Christmas appeal generally.
"We had 230 gift tags with the Christmas wishes of all of the young people that we support across our service on the Christmas trees in our receptions and local residents and local businesses came in and collected tags and purchased and there was some incredible generosity," she said.
"That's the largest number of gifts we've ever had to try to provide to our clients and we actually didn't think we were going to make it - particularly with COVID, we were unsure if people would feel comfortable dropping in."
Moodie's Pharmacy and Anytime Fitness had Christmas trees in their receptions and customers supported the cause, Ms Stocks said.
"And we had people turn up with $500 worth of gift vouchers, who didn't want to leave their names, who just left them [the vouchers]," she said.
She said Bathurst RSL Club chief executive officer Peter Sargent and president Ian Miller had helped Veritas staff deliver hampers last year.
"So when Pete called us this year, he said it was a no-brainer for them to get behind it again because they could directly see the impact," she said.
Mr Sargent said the donation to Veritas tied in with the club's aim to be the heart of the community.
"Our view is our club is all about supporting our community and this is one of the best possible ways we can do that: to make sure that those who are most in need get a good feed at Christmas time and have a pantry full of stuff; are able to eat well and are able to enjoy Christmas."
