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MARTEL MAXWELL: Help For Kids is lifeblood of Dundee children in need

Fingers in tills is nothing new, but it should make us more determined to back the brilliant charities who make a difference every day.

Gary Rooney and others who drove Bangers to Benidorm for Help for Kids. Image: Steve MacDougall/DC Thomson
Gary Rooney and others who drove Bangers to Benidorm for Help for Kids. Image: Steve MacDougall/DC Thomson

Radix malorum est cupiditas.

I can’t think I’ve kicked off the column in Latin before – but there you have it, a biblical quotation that, the longer I live, the more I believe to be true.

For it means ‘the root of evil is greed’.

Whether greed for land and power that causes wars, or greed for money that results in human trafficking and drug kartels, it is part of life.

And it’s part too of the daily scenery or any town or city in smaller ways every day.

I was thinking this when I read of money being stolen from Dundee charity Lochee Larder, by Mhairi Borland.

Dundee Sheriff Court heard how she took £4,500 while acting as the treasurer of the organisation, which helps those in need in one of our most deprived areas.

Lochee Community Larder.

She was originally charged with embezzling £25,000 but pled guilty to a reduced charge.

It’s not for me to point the finger any more than the facts and verdict already do.

As another quotation – from the Alexander Pope poem An Essay on Criticism – goes, ‘to err is human, to forgive divine’.

The red face of facing neighbours day in and out must be excruciating.

You’d hope there’s remorse – and for all we know she is wondering how to do some good to make up for her betrayal.

Help For Kids helps children who need it most

But the thing that irked me most about this story was the bigger picture – the one where Dundonians reading it are put off giving to any charity.

For what’s the point of the Borlands of the city are at it at such an established, well thought of organisation?

I won’t be alone in having donated bags of clothes and toys to it. Some things I found hard to part with.

And yet I’ve seen first hand how many genuine people and organisations there are to help those who need it most in our cities. From soup kitchens to drop ins and fundraising charities.

Help For Kids recently gave funding to Dundee City Disability Sports for them to run activities for youngsters. Image: Mhairi Edwards/DC Thomson

But the one I can vouch for with personal experience now being on the board is Help For Kids (HFK) – a charity which, as anyone with their ear to the ground of Dundee knows, is the lifeblood of children in need in Dundee.

Every penny is accounted for. Not only that, it is robustly debated on a case by case basis by a passionate board.

And on it goes raising those pennies – more each year – with over a million pounds raised in a decade.

We don’t sit on the cash, we give it to kids who are referred by their school, social worker or occasionally a family member – who have no other avenue to get the school trip, special needs bed, washing machine, school holiday breakfast club, football boots or other things their parents or carers cannot give.

Back the charities that make a difference

Sometimes HFK steps in to help other charities too.

There is one motivation – to raise money to make a difference.

A larger band of ambassadors fly the flag for the cause – from the loyal ladies who attend the annual lunch, generously bidding away for luxury prizes – to the grafters like Gary who go set up Bangers to Benidorm and raise tens of thousands of pounds – and all the kind souls in between.

It’s not all about the cash – look at the current beds campaign to give great beds and linen to children, or the three thousand kids were given Santa bags this year, each containing small and larger presents which were age-related to each child and where possible, tied in with their interests.

Gary Rooney and others drove Bangers to Benidorm to raise money for Help for Kids. Image: Steve MacDougall/DC Thomson

Many of those presents came from campaigns led by Dundee’s kids’ football clubs or schools, with new presents donated. It might have been lying unwanted and unopened in the cupboard or bought specially.

As one business leader said to me recently: ‘The unseen things Help For Kids has done – that’s the strength. It just happens. But if you know what’s happening in this city, you know.’

Fingers in tills is nothing new. But it should make us all the more determined to identify and back the many brilliant charities who make a difference every day.

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