Every bag is headed for a real child on one of the hardest days of their life.
On selected Saturdays throughout the year, the clubhouse at Hammerwich Cricket Club in Staffordshire turns into something quite different from its usual role as a hub for bat and ball. Trestle tables go up, boxes of donated items are wheeled in and volunteers of all ages take their places in an assembly line with a single purpose: packing Buddy Bags for children entering emergency care.
The sessions, known as Buddy Bag Brigades, are organised in partnership with the Buddy Bag Foundation, a charity that provides bags of essential and comforting items to children who are removed from their homes in emergency circumstances – often with little more than the clothes they’re wearing. Each bag typically contains things like pyjamas, toiletries, a soft toy and a few small comforts intended to offer some dignity and reassurance during an incredibly frightening moment in a child’s life.
At Hammerwich, sessions have regularly aimed to pack somewhere in the region of 180 to 192 bags in a single morning, usually running from about 10am to 12pm. All the packing materials and items are supplied by the foundation, so volunteers simply need to turn up, roll up their sleeves and get stuck into what’s essentially a very purposeful production line – folding, filling, checking and sealing bag after bag.
One small ritual at each session captures the spirit of why the bags are packed. Each bag includes a knitted teddy bear, and before it goes in, the volunteer packing that bag gives it a hug – a quiet, deliberate moment meant to load the bear with a bit of warmth before it’s sealed away for a child they’ll never meet. It’s a simple gesture, but it turns an assembly line into something more personal: a reminder that every bag is headed for a real child on one of the hardest days of their life.
What makes these events resonate locally is the setting as much as the cause. Hammerwich Cricket Club has built a reputation as a genuine community hub, a place open to members “under eight or over 70”, as the club puts it, and the Buddy Bag Brigade sessions fit naturally into that ethos. They’ve doubled as informal team-building outings for local businesses and groups, as well as a magnet for individual volunteers who simply want to give a few hours to a tangible, visible cause.
The club has backed the partnership beyond the packing mornings themselves, hosting fundraisers like race nights in aid of the Buddy Bag Foundation, with proceeds going directly toward supplying the items that fill each bag.
The Buddy Bag Foundation is a UK registered charity that supports children who have had to leave home suddenly because of domestic abuse or other emergency situations. The charity was established in 2015 after its founder, Karen Williams OBE, was inspired by a similar initiative in Australia and identified a need for the same support in the UK.
The idea behind Buddy Bags is a simple one: a child facing removal from home has enough uncertainty to deal with without also facing it empty-handed. A bag of their own – with something soft to hold, clean clothes, and basic toiletries – can’t undo the circumstances that brought them there, but it can soften the edges of an otherwise bleak day.
For the volunteers who show up at Hammerwich, the appeal is similarly straightforward: a few hours of practical work that translates directly into something a child will receive, often within days. It’s the kind of volunteering where the impact is countable, bag by bag, by the end of the morning.
Hammerwich Cricket Club continues to host these Buddy Bag Brigade sessions periodically alongside its usual fixtures, membership drives, and social events – proof that a cricket ground can be just as useful off the pitch as on it.