Houghton Regis gym's ‘give a gift’ scheme receives over 100 donations for families in need this Christmas

A Houghton Regis gym will be giving out more than £1,800 worth of gifts this Christmas.

Iron Bodies gym teamed up with the Salvation Army and received more than 100 gifts donated by the local community. The presents will go to underprivileged children and those who need it the most in our local community at Christmas.

Gym owner Gavin Gibson said: “I was approached my one of our members Mario Yates who works with the Salvation Army on numerous projects to see if we would be interested in gift donations for children. We hoped to raise around 15-20 gifts that could be donated but the response surpassed all expectations.”

Gavin set up an Amazon wishlist making it very easy for people to donate and shared it to all the gym pages on social media as well as his personal page on Instagram.He explained: “The wishlist makes it very easy – two clicks and it gets delivered straight to the gym. We have over £1,800 worth, and it shows the power of community spirit within the gym and on social media. Knowing the gifts donated stay within our community really helped people resonate with giving, rather than just giving money and never truly knowing where it ends up.”

The gifts are given to the Salvation Army and they distribute them as they see fit.

Gavin also added: “We sponsor local teams and always help where we can and to receive this much during a cost of living crisis really shows what you can do when people pull together.”