Coasters gave back in a big way to the less fortunate this past Christmas.
Elves Club
A total of nearly $38,000 was donated to the Elves Club in cash and gift cards, enabling 464 families (1,020 people) to receive food and gifts over the holidays from the Elves Club.
“It was a beautiful thing. It came together wonderfully and we had an absolutely fabulous response from the stores,” said Elves Club president Lynn Nestman.
This was the first year the Elves Club asked for donated gift cards instead of food and gifts, and Nestman said the response from stores selling the gift cards was “wonderful.”
“People were just so pleased,” Nestman said. “One store owner told me that she had a lady come in who was just so excited to pick out a pair of new slippers because she had never owned a pair of new slippers in her entire life. There were some tears.”
She expects that next year’s gift card effort will be “bigger and better” because the Elves Club plans to hold a fundraising telethon as well as continue with their Elves Crash the Coast event that sees Elves Club members and first responders collect donations on street corners and in malls.
Secret Santa
The Secret Santa effort saw 28 families in need presented with food and gifts over the holidays. Just over $32,000 was raised by Secret Santa this year thanks to public and business donations that kept coming in right until the week before Christmas.
Organizer Zoe Barbaro said each family received a hamper with Christmas dinner and all the trimmings, presents like clothes, shoes and gloves and a multitude of gift cards.
One of the “families” nominated for Secret Santa this year was the cold weather shelter and Barbaro said the clients of the shelter were elated to receive a full Christmas dinner, gifts and gift cards.
“I think when the shelter was nominated they didn’t realize how much stuff they’d get and they were completely overwhelmed when we showed up. There were lots of tears,” Barbaro said.
Secret Santa gifted the shelter large bins full of supplies for clients including backpacks, jackets, rain ponchos, sleeping bags, pyjamas, thermal underwear, flashlights, first aid supplies, hot packs, socks, gloves, tuques and toiletries.
“We also included several hundred dollars worth of gift cards for meals and coffee at Subway to be handed out to all the shelter clients and the shelter itself received another several hundred dollars in gift cards for food for the shelter’s needs,” Barbaro said, adding Marie Frewen also donated free tax return services for all shelter clients.
She said there “were lots of hugs and God bless you’s” from the clients to the Secret Santa volunteers.
Kettle Campaign
This year’s Salvation Army Kettle Campaign was a great success, surpassing the $60,000 fundraising goal to bring in over $75,000 for the Salvation Army’s efforts on the Sunshine Coast throughout the year.
The 2016 Kettle Campaign saw volunteers put in over 800 hours at kettles across the Coast and several business match donations to make up the $75,000-plus figure.
Donations were still being taken at London Drugs until Dec. 31 and those funds were not included in the $75,000 figure released this week. The final Kettle Campaign total is expected to be known by the second week of January.
In addition to the Kettle Campaign effort, Terminal Forest Products gave a large donation over the holidays, specifically for feeding programs and emergency services offered by Salvation Army.
“They gave food and a donation of $3,600 on behalf of Garrett Log Services and crew, Terminal Forest Products and crew, Coastland Log Service and crew, Bob Hopkins Contracting and the crews from Avalon Dryland and Sechelt Creek Contracting,” said Kettle Campaign coordinator Ingeborg Hardman.
