Tree of Hands to resume Santa parade, hand delivery of Christmas gifts to local children

Children who are less fortunate on Tortola will once again receive a special Christmas gift from the charitable group, Tree of Hands.

This year, however, child recipients can expect more pomp and fanfare, Alexandra Durante of Tree of Hands has said.

“In the past, we would get all the gifts and distribute them to Family Support Network, to Social Development, and heads of churches and schools. Unfortunately, since I took over, we never really saw the kids, and that’s what my parents started, they delivered to the families and saw their faces,” Durante said.

“So on December 24th we are actually going to be hand-delivering them. We are going to do some sort of gifting parade with Santa, and it’s going to be a surprise time, date and location,” she added.

Durante explained that the gifts to children on the territory’s sister islands will be distributed through Christmas parties on those islands.

Targeting roughly 700 children

She said her organisation’s target this year is to gift at least 700 children locally.

There will be a wrapping party on December 23rd at Christian’s on Main Street near the Island Roots area.

More than 100 gifts have already been donated to Tree of Hands to give to children ages 0 to 16.

Interested persons can drop off gifts at Cedar International School, International Motors, Clarence Thomas Ltd, at EC Soap Co, KPMG, Taino on the Tortola Pier Park, and at Digicel.