Over 1,000 gifted at annual Tree of Hands fun day

The Tortola Pier Park was transformed into an amusement park on Saturday when more than 1,000 children were given a special treat and gifted by the Tree of Hands.

Tree of Hands is a local outreach group of volunteers and businesses who collect gifts for children then distribute them to needy youngsters at Christmas time.

Gifts were distributed on Saturday to 1,056 children during the fun day event on Tortola, and the remaining 944 will be distributed to children on the outer islands of Jost Van Dyke, Anegada and Virgin Gorda in the coming days.

Alexandra Durante, who took over the 25-year-old charity from her mother, Carole Durante, made an international appeal for assistance due to the devastation of the territory following the recent hurricanes.

“We did really well. It was from 2-4 pm, but we actually extended it by an hour,” she told BVI News.

“We felt really, really well. We are very happy about this year’s contributions.”

During the three hour event, youngsters were given free food, a gift from Santa and entertainment by the Pelican Gate School Dancers, BVI Dancers and the Althea Scatliffe Primary School Drummers.