Belfast’s ‘Black Santa’ has recalled receiving £10,000 while collecting for his annual Christmas charity vigil on the steps of St Anne’s Cathedral.
Launching on Monday, it is the seventh Christmas sit-out for the Very Rev Stephen Forde, Dean of Belfast, and the 48th year of the tradition.
The tradition was started in December 1976 by Dean Sammy Crooks and maintained by his successors, Deans Jack Shearer, Houston McKelvey and John Mann the aim of the appeal is to raise as much money as possible for local and international charities.
“The Black Santa tradition is one that the people of Belfast and beyond have taken into their hearts,” Dean Forde told The Irish News.
“All sorts of people come - some come with surprisingly large sums of money.
“Perhaps the best story of all was the lunchtime when somebody got out of a taxi and handed us a brown bundle and inside was £10,000.
“People will give small and large amounts but whatever people give it’s wonderful to receive from them as we work towards achieving our target of for this year of £180,000.”
The 2024 Black Santa Appeal will have a special focus on charities working with younger people with particular needs in the community.
“There’s two areas we’re focusing on,” explained the Dean.
“We’re working with charities that support families where a member has autism or severe autism which can be very challenging and the support is not always there, so we will be supporting smaller charities working in that field this year.
“And secondly, we will be supporting charities that are working to prevent young people, and in particular young people with a lived experience of care, from finding themselves homeless as they move to independent living.”
The famous Black Santa wooden barrel will be open for the public to give their contributions but with an increasingly cashless society, people can also donate with a simple tap on Black Santa’s brand-new card machine.
“The charities we work with across the whole of Northern Ireland from Fermanagh to south Armagh to Kilkeel and to Coleraine are small and don’t have their own fundraisers, so the money that we’re able to give to them from Black Santa can be a real life changer for them.
“They can do things that they wouldn’t have been able to do before so they really appreciate the money and the difference that it makes.”
