Veritas House Christmas Wishing Tree is back and looking for support from the Orange community

But Veritas House's Christmas Wishing Tree is back to help out.

Christmas wishes for more than 230 local children and young people have been placed on Christmas trees at Veritas House offices in Orange and Bathurst.

With even more Christmas wishes to fulfill this year compared to previous years, Veritas is calling on residents to embrace the spirit of giving and purchase a gift for a child or young person who is either in Out-of-Home Care, experienced homelessness, or unlikely to receive a gift this year due to hardship.

"The number of young people Veritas is supporting ... is currently at its highest level for our agency," Jody Pearce, Veritas House CEO said.

"Added to that, the Christmas period is also one of our busiest at our youth refuges in Orange and Bathurst.

"Each year we are overwhelmed by the generosity of the community in supporting our Christmas Appeal, but we were genuinely concerned last year that we might not fulfill all the wishes due to COVID, until the Bathurst RSL Club provided us with an incredible $5,000 donation.

"This year, we are trying some new initiatives to offer a range of ways people can support us, and we are hopeful the community will rally again and help us grant all the wishes on our trees."

There are several ways the community can contribute; the most popular being to visit a Veritas House office to collect a gift tag with the wish list of a child from the Christmas tree, and then return it by Friday, December 3 with the preferably unwrapped gift.

Finally, supporters can purchase a gift card for a local teenager or make a tax-deductible donation to contribute towards the purchase of a gift for a child via the Veritas House website: www.veritashouse.org.au/events/christmas.

This is the fifth year the Veritas' Christmas Wishing Trees are being run. The Orange office is at 29 Sale Street, Orange.

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