Warwickshire support #Toys4Birmingham in delivering 16,500 toys for Christmas

Co-ordinated at Warwickshire’s home of Edgbaston Stadium, #Toys4Birmingham is a united campaign from the club’s official charity the Edgbaston Foundation, Thrive Together Birmingham and Birmingham PlayCare Network.

Together, the charities have staged three donation days over the last two weeks, which saw in excess of 16,500 toys donated, which the players helped deliver yesterday ready to be wrapped for children to open on Christmas Day.

Warwickshire captain Will Rhodes led one of the groups of players, which delivered gifts to St. Germain’s Church on City Road. “To come here and distribute books, toys to the less fortunate is a fantastic thing for us to do,” he said.

“As a professional sportsman you can be in a little bit of a bubble sometimes and all you think about is cricket and not the outside world. There’s a lot more to the world than cricket and today proves that.”

“I think what is great about today is that the players can see the impact that’s being made. People were loving that they could meet their stars and it has been a really nice Warwickshire family initiative with people making donations across the Club.”

Edgbaston Foundation brings back #Toys4Birmingham 2021 - Image 1

The #Toys4Birmingham appeal follows on from a food storage and distribution initiative that that Edgbaston Foundation delivered from the stadium with Thrive Together Birmingham in the first summer lockdown, with more than £51,500 worth of food distributed to community groups across the city.

The Club also donated the car park at Edgbaston to be used as a drive-through COVID test centre, whilst further fundraising was co-ordinated through the 2.6 Challenge, through sales of charity t-shirts and a cricket-wide auction.