Diverse Abilities, a charity supporting children and adults with disabilities, has launched a call for the county’s unwanted Christmas presents to repurpose as raffle and auction lots throughout its fundraising events in 2024.

The Great Christmas Present Amnesty takes place throughout January where Dorset’s disability charity will accept unwanted and new items from the festive season including beauty products, shower gel sets, cookbooks, alcohol, food hampers and more. The only products excluded from the collection are electrical products.

Francesca Potton, community fundraiser at Diverse Abilities, commented: “We’ve all received that one present from a distant relative that doesn’t know you all that well, or even received duplicates of the same thing because some people know you really well! These presents don’t need to linger in the back of the cupboard anymore as we will make good use of them throughout the year.”

Gifts can be dropped off at the Diverse Abilities Head Office, above Langside School, on weekdays between 10am and 3pm. The school’s address is Langside School, Langside Avenue, Poole, BH12 5BN. On arrival use the doors for the main office – to the right of the main school doors. 

In addition, presents can also be dropped off at G&T Cards in Broadstone, Ashley Road, Boscombe (Sovereign Centre) and Poole High Street or the Coach & Horses in Wimborne. 

Alternatively, individuals, community groups, and businesses can host their own collections to be dropped off at the head office together.

Francesca continued: “If you want to host your own collection, then we want to hear from you – we’ve got a helpful fundraising pack to support you along the way and explain how these contributions make a huge difference in our fundraising events.”

Visit diverseabilities.org.uk/presentamnesty for more details about how to drop off your gifts or to set up your own community collection.