The 2012 Christmas Appeal by the Aberdeen Cyrenians charity prompted the women in the Bridge of Don congregation of the Aberdeen area, over a three month period, to knit or donate scarves, gloves, and socks, and provide toiletries, bars of chocolate and other sweets.
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The Aberdeen Cyrenians Charity, named after Simon the Cyrenian who carried Jesus’ cross on the way to Calvary (Luke 23:31), has a philosophy of ‘sharing the burden’. Since 1968 it has provided meals to home-less people and has opened emergency accommodation centres for young and the elderly. It relies on the generosity of citizens and local stores to provide food, clothes and other basic necessities.
During an evening meeting in November, the women covered thirty empty shoe boxes with decorative paper and filled them with items to make individual gifts, which were taken to the charity’s administration office and appreciatively received.
The women from the Relief Society organisation, the oldest women's organisation in the world, also contributed tins and packets of food, enough to fill two deep supermarket trolleys which were donated to the Instant Neighbour Charity, which since 1984, has provided practical help, advice and support to some of the poorest and most vulnerable people living in Aberdeen.