CELTIC FC Foundation are delighted to announce the overwhelming success of our 2014 Christmas Appeal.

In the past few days, the Foundation’s Christmas Appeal has reached a grand total of £70,000, and the money raised will go directly towards helping the following charitable causes:

• Around 200 local families (a Christmas meal and gifts for the children). 
• Glasgow East Women’s Aid (Gifts, toys and family outings, gifts for those in the refuge). 
• Spirit Aid (Christmas hampers for those in need in the West of Scotland) 
• Glasgow Simon Community (We hosted a Christmas lunch at Celtic Park on Sunday, December 7) 
• Loaves and Fishes (a hot meal in the cold weather for the homeless and those living in poverty) 
• The Wayside Club Centre (a refuge and meal on Christmas Day for the homeless) 
• Glasgow City Mission (support for their Older Men’s Club which provides food and companionship) 
• Scottish Refugee Council (support for refugees facing their first Christmas in Scotland) 
• The Invisibles (warm goods and clothing for the City’s homeless) 
• Yorkhill Children’s Charity (gifts and activities for children facing a hospital stay over Christmas) 
• The Salvation Army (Christmas day lunch, food parcels and gifts for children)

Celtic Chief Executive Peter Lawwell said: “Celtic was delighted to kick-off this year’s Christmas Appeal with a £10,000 donation and we are so pleased that such an impressive target has been reached through the collective support of so many people.    

I would like to thank all within the Celtic family who have contributed to this magnificent effort.    

Celtic Football Club  is totally committed to helping people in real need and at a difficult time of the year for so many, we hope our work, through this year’s appeal, can bring some cheer to those who really need our support.

Our Christmas Appeal will ultimately have a huge impact across a wide spectrum of families and fantastic community groups and will make such a positive difference to the lives of thousands of people, once again honouring the charitable ambitions of the club’s great founders.”

Linda Dunlop of The Salvation Army said: “Through your donation we will be able to provide a ‘turkey and all the trimmings’ lunch for around 40-50 lonely people and families in hardship on Christmas Day.

We also plan to provide Christmas food parcels for some of the neediest families in the Parkhead area. These can now be made extra special because of your gift. Along with the food, toys will be included for the children. We can also replenish the stock of our food bank which I am sure will be very busy in January. 

We intend to develop our older peoples’ programme in January to serve the elderly of this community and I am sure that, with your contribution, will be able to offer more activities than originally planned. Thank you once again for your generous donation.”

Flutura Shala, Head of Funding Development at Scottish Refugee Council, said: “At a time of year when most of us look forward to the cheer of Christmas, there are families who have been forced to leave their homes and everything they know because of war or persecution.

Many who ended up in Scotland and use our services have next to nothing, and face hard times even at Christmas. The funds raised will bring some much-needed comfort and will also help show that Scotland can be a truly welcoming place.”

Additionally, Celtic FC Foundation have donated around £3,000 worth of toys to various children’s groups across Glasgow following our hugely successful toy drive at our Ghirls for Good Ladies Lunch event.

Moreover, the 2014 Christmas Appeal saw a multitude of tremendous fundraising initiatives and immense generosity from the Celtic Family.

In addition to the enormously kind initial £10,000 donation from Celtic Football Club, the Christmas Appeal also featured a celebratory Ghirls for Good Ladies Lunch and a pre-match bucket collection at Celtic Park on December 14.

These events were buoyed by the considerable generosity of the Celtic family and Celtic FC Foundation would like to extend another thank you to all those who supported the Ghirls for Good Ladies Lunch as well as those who kindly volunteered to shake a bucket in the driving rain for our collection.

Significantly, Celtic FC Foundation’s 2014 Christmas Appeal has helped a record number of people including 200 local families.

These local families were boosted by a cash gift which will ensure they have a plentiful and happy Christmas.

A number of recipient families have since contacted Celtic FC Foundation to express their gratitude for the touching generosity of all those who supported the Christmas Appeal.

Celtic FC Foundation CEO, Tony Hamilton, said: “Genuinely making a difference to people up and down the country when they need it the most goes to the heart of who we are and what we’re all about. 

However, we wouldn’t have been able to do anything this Christmas without the generosity of so many different individuals and groups.

I’d like to thank all supporters at home and abroad, Club sponsors and suppliers, players and staff, directors and executive of Celtic and Celtic FC Foundation, the Supporters’ Committee, individual clubs and associations, the Ellen Kane Trust and Football Aid – all of whom made this possible.

Our next effort continues into 2015 with a series of events planned as well as a lot of delivery scheduled across our H.E.L.P. areas of Health, Equality, Learning and Poverty.”