The Sunshine Coast Secret Santa (SCSS) is back this year to help give a Merry Christmas to families and individuals on the Coast going through hard times by supplying them with Christmas hampers.
SCSS has received 45 nominations for people who are in need of a little extra cheer this season, but vice-president Crystaleen O’Bray said they have had to make some tough choices allocating the hampers to deserving nominations.
“We can’t pick all 45 because we don’t know how much money we’re going to raise. So we just picked 16 and we’re advertising and promoting those 16 families. As we get more and more money, we go back to our lists and say let’s add this family and this family,” O’Bray said. “Ultimately we’d like to do every family but it just depends on the community support and how much we can raise.”
Nominations can come from anyone; many come from the Ministry of Children and Family Development and Family First.
“Also from the schools because the teachers are there with the children every day and they get to see things that maybe others in the community don’t,” O’Bray said. “From there we can base the hamper needs, so if it’s a family of five and their dad just passed away – now there’s a single mom who doesn’t work who is left with five kids. Then we specialize that hamper for each individual family.”
SCSS president Zoe Barbaro contacts the selected families and asks for a wish list of things that they need.
“So say if they are behind on their hydro and their hydro is going to get cut off, we can do things like pay the hydro bill,” O’Bray said. Grocery cards are another example of something you might find in a hamper.
The nomination period ended in November, but O’Bray said they’re still taking donations. She said they plan to deliver the hampers on Dec. 19 so families have time to go out and get any presents that didn’t make it into the hamper.
“All the donations we gather up and collect at Danceworks Academy in Gibsons. We spend two days individually wrapping each family’s hamper. We wrap each present, we make stockings for each member of the family. The two wrapping nights will most likely be Dec. 16 and 17 and we do need a lot of volunteers for that, because we’re wrapping 16 large individualized hampers,” O’Bray said. “We need a lot of volunteer support for that.”
For more information or to get involved with SCSS, visit their website at www.sunshinecoastsecretsanta.com
