Making other children and families happy at Christmas has inspired a teenage girl from Rotherham to design her own range of Christmas cards.
This will be the fourth Christmas that 13-year-old Charlotte Oram, from Kimberworth, has raised money for the Rotherham Christmas Toy Appeal.
She started making and selling cards in 2021 when she was just ten years old, using the money to buy presents for other children her own age less fortunate than her. The talented schoolgirl spent hours, night after night, hand-drawing each individual card with her designs.
She sold 50 cards in the first year, raising £20 which bought two presents for the appeal.
“The following year, I knew I needed some help so I got in touch with John Brailsford Printers to ask about printing my designs instead of me hand-drawing them. I think they were surprised to be hearing from an 11-year-old. They have been great and have printed my cards again this year,” Charlotte says.
Thanks to the support of other local businesses and her school, Wingfield Academy, Charlotte has raised over £700 since starting her Christmas card campaign.
Last year, she printed almost 800 cards, raising £500 thanks to a stall at a Christmas gift fair at Elsecar. That money bought a stack of presents for the appeal, which Charlotte and her parents, Claire and David, dropped off to Ann Levick and the team at Rotherham Families First.
“It felt nice to see what I’d done. But it was also really eye opening to see how many toys were in the crates; it made me realise how many children would go without if it wasn’t for the toy appeal,” she says.
This year, Charlotte wants to raise £800 for the appeal to buy even more gifts for the children and young people of Rotherham.
She has three designs for 2024: a pizza Christmas tree, a ninjabread man, and her best seller, the Grinch. Her cards will be stocked in Boulton Family Butchers on St John’s Green, Kimberworth Park. Charlotte is also having a stall at the Hellaby Hall Christmas market on Sunday 24th November.
