Harry's Toy Chest camp out raises thousands for CHSW
Diehard toy fans started queueing outside a shop in Cornwall nearly 24 hours ahead of a huge Christmas giveaway. Harry's Toy Chest in Truro organised the festive giveaway to raise money for Children's Hospice South West at Little Harbour in Porthpean, St Austell.
The event, which took place on Saturday (December 14) saw toy enthusiasts queueing for hours to be in for a chance to win hundreds of pounds in gift vouchers and free Lego in raffle giveaways. It marked owner, Harry Stacey's fifth year on the high street, so he decided to organise a huge event to celebrate.
Not wanting to leave fans of his shop freezing to death in the cold outside, Harry provided tea, coffee and hot chocolate to anyone in the queue from 6am. Harry also experienced for himself what it is like to queue for hours when he joined his fans in the early hours of the morning.
Speaking to CornwallLive after the event, Harry said: "The earliest person started camping at 1:30pm the day before, which was nearly 24 hours until the event started the next day! We also camped outside, which was a 30 hour shift for us as we got no sleep."
He added that they managed to raise £4,361.56 for Children's Hospice South West through sales during the day and from donations. Harry thanked all his customers for their support and said:
We’ve really built an exciting community around the shop, and I can’t believe it’s grown this much over the years.
The event was originally due to be held on Saturday, December 7, but Storm Darragh led to it being postponed as Harry didn't want fans to queue all night in a storm for the sake of Lego. However the event was rearranged for December 14 and proved to be a huge success nonetheless.
Last year, Harry hosted a similar event, during which hundreds of people queued up around the block for a chance to win a massive Lego Star Wars model. The creative entrepreneur said at the time that the support his little Lego specialist shop had received had been phenomenal.
In September, Harry was visited by Harry Potter and Star Wars actor Warwick Davis and the pair hit it off. So much so that Warwick offered to return to Harry's Toy Chest a few weeks later for an autograph signing event in aid of men's mental health charity Man Down.
The event was again so popular that people queued throughout the day and around the block for more than five hours for a chance to take a selfie with the Hollywood star and have some memorabilia signed.