
SINCE 2004 Denise Haynes has been organising a Giving Tree which takes pride of place in her R & R Property office in Stroud.

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“It’s a community I love with all my heart and I’m committed to see it thrive,” Denise said.
The history of the Giving Tree has its origins in a book of the same name written in 1964 by Shel Silverstein.
The story of a tree that happily gives what it can to a small boy, shade, then apples, then branches so the boy can build a boat even when all that is left is a trunk it is happy to provide a place for the boy, now an old man to sit.
The morale of this story is that someone will always be there for you and that is why a Giving Tree is an appropriate way to promote help within a community.
People are welcome to place gifts under the tree for a boy or girl unwrapped ages one to eighteen years “It is an increasingly popular way in which community members can give to each other,” Denise said.
Mid December the gifts are handed to the Dungog Community Centre who wrap them, place them in hampers along with other items and distribute to those in need.
Denise said, “This really is a time when it’s the thought that counts.”
By Sandra CLARK