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St Nicholas, Carrickfergus, supports Baby Basics

Wednesday February 20th 2019

Jill Hamilton, centre, of Baby Basics Belfast, with St Nicholas, Carrickfergus, Mothers Union members who co-ordinated the four-week challenge.

St Nicholas Parish Church, Carrickfergus, took on the North Belfast Centre of Mission’s Baby Basics four-week challenge in January.

The church congregation is challenged to make donations of essential clothing and toiletries for families in need who have just had or are about to have a new baby. The donations are collected over four Sundays and at the end of the challenge are passed on to the Baby Basics’ team who are based at Connect Base in Shankill Road.   

The items are sorted and stored at Connect Base ready for distribution to families who need them in the coming weeks.

The Mother’s Union at St Nicholas played a leading role in taking on the challenge, actively supporting it through their own donations and encouraging the wider congregation to join in.

Jill Hamilton, Connor Children’s Project Development Officer and Baby Basics co-ordinator, extended a special thanks to Christine Cahoon for all her hard work and for liaising with the Baby Basics’ team.  The result was a large quantity of items including, nappies, toiletries for mum and baby, baby clothing, baby bath, blankets etc.

Jill visited the Mother’s Union meeting in February to thank the members and to share a few stories about the families that Baby Basics Belfast supports.

“The ladies were very interested to hear about how Baby Basics supports vulnerable families across the city and were delighted to be of help,” Jill said.

Two of the Mother Union members delivered the items to the Connect Base, and also donated £105 to put towards Baby Basics expenses. “This was gratefully received as some items do need to be purchased to make up the packs,” Jill said.

Sister Karen Webb, Church Army Evangelist at Connect Base, said: “The donations from St Nicholas filled the whole floor of Connect Base. It was so brilliant that they were all sorted for us as this really reduces the workload at this end. Still, it took several hours to get everything packed away which shows what a large number of items were donated.  A massive thank you to St Nicholas.”

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