Students from the Club Doncaster Sports College student council, have been coming up with a way of giving back to the local community this year.
After discussing ideas of what they could do to help those in need, this Christmas, they settled on creating small gift hampers for people during the festive season.
They were helped along the way with their idea, by Doncaster Roversā first team players, Jack Degruchy and Ben Close, who attended the Christmas wrapping afternoon at the Eco-Power Stadium earlier this month.
With festive songs playing in the background, Close and Degruchy, along with students and staff, worked together to sort out the items that had been donated and collected, into groups. With an array of items from books, to shower gel and even items of clothing, the gifts were wrapped and piled up, ready to be delivered.
Following a post on social media, which gave those in the local community the chance to reach out, students settled on Dunelmās delivery joy appeal and Benton House nursing home in Rossington to deliver the gifts to.
Students and staff stopped by Dunelmās store on Wheatley Hall Road to drop off a big box of presents, before meeting up with both Close and Degruchy earlier this week, to hand deliver the gifts to residents at Benton House.
Both players and students spent time with the residents at the nursing home, having conversations with them and handing the presents to individuals and helping open them.
Catherine Berry, home manager at Benton House spoke of how the act of kindness will really help the residents this Christmas: āIt really means a lot to everyone here. Thereās a number of men here who have played a lot of football in their youth, so itās been a positive for them and brought them back to life a little bit. Thereās a buzz round here now.
āItās special to have been chosen by the Sports College and Doncaster Rovers. Thereās a lot of places and care homes within Doncaster, so to choose us, is special.
āItās good that youngsters are recognising the older population and people that are in care might not actually get much of a Christmas, they might not have anybody. So to get a gift, itās special to them, however big or small. We canāt thank them enough.ā
Close spoke about how rewarding it was, handing out the gifts personally to residents on Tuesday: āItās a time of year which is really positive and people are supposed to spending time with families and thatās not always the case for everyone.
āWeāve been told some of these wonāt be getting a huge amount of family visiting them, so to come and spend some time here, put a smile on their faces with gifts, itās really rewarding. While weāre here, we get to see the incredible work the staff do aswell.
āYou can really see the positive reaction from them, itās not something that they get every day.ā
Close also shed a light on the initiative from the sports college students: āThe students have been really thoughtful with this idea. For them to get all the items in themselves, wrap them and then deliver them is really thoughtful.
āWe helped the students wrap the presents and thought it would be a great idea for myself and Jack to go along with them to see the gifts being handed out and the positive reaction from those in the nursing home. It was a special afternoon.ā
Leader of the student council and Sports Lecturer for the sports college, Kyle Croft said: āThe students expressed they wanted to help others this Christmas, so we decided upon Dunelm delivering joy appeal and Benton House nursing home to ensure their residents received a gift.
āItās been fantastic to see the students response, donating so many items. The learners have really gained a lot from helping others over the festive period and we as staff couldnāt be prouder.ā