Sydney gay club ARQ leads Christmas charity drive for children in need
Image: Photo: Facebook / The Smith Family.
Popular Sydney club ARQ is leading a Christmas charity drive for children in need.
The nightclub has been collecting donations for The Smith Family, which supports disadvantaged children in Australia, Gay Star News reported.
People can drop off toys, books and cash donations at the club, located near Oxford Street, during the leadup to Christmas.
The initiative started last year, organised by ARQ duty manager Jack Rae.
“Last year I was inspired by my friend Gael Donaldson (who has organised drop off points for the appeal for several years now) to get involved and encourage people to donate to the cause,” said Rae.
“The Smith Family is a wonderful charity and the appeal gets thousands of toys and books to disadvantaged kids who would otherwise be likely wake up to no presents on Christmas morning.”
“Last year we had lots of people drop off toys and books. We also had lots of people who wanted to donate a toy but didn’t have the time to go shopping so they made cash donations instead,’ Rae said.
Local drag queens have contributed by hustling the weekend crowds for donations.
“Some of our wonderful queens including Coco Jumbo, Krystal Kleer and Fantasia Starr also did the rounds through the crowds with collection buckets,” said Rae.
“The wonderful Felicity Frockaccino donated her time to help us film a little promo video for the appeal that featured her shopping at Kmart in drag, buying toys with all the money that people had donated over the weekend.”
The nightclub will pass on the donated gifts to The Smith Family and use donated cash to buy more books and toys for the charity.
Donations can also be made online for The Smith Family’s Christmas appeal.
