INNISFAIL - For the past 35 years the Innisfail Christmas Bureau has worked hard each holiday season to put smiles on the faces for the community’s disadvantaged.
This year brings the greatest community challenge of all - the COVID-19 pandemic.
However, Norma Hoppins, the bureau’s donations chairperson, said the community has stepped up in a huge way to ensure it will be a memorable Christmas for the citizens the agency will serve.
She said it was decided this year to work with a skeleton staff crew to ensure everyone they served was as safe as possible from the virus.
Hoppins said COVID was also very much on the minds of generous and thoughtful ladies who made Christmas-styled cloth masks for volunteers, and hundreds more for all hampers.
“And another lady gave us another 100. We are thinking that is something everyone can use,” said Hoppins. “They can use a toy but it’s not bad having a mask too.”
Hoppins said last week volunteers were half way through the recipient interviewing process and were surprised with the number of families seeking assistance.
“Our numbers are down a little. We expected them to be up,” she said, noting there was still more than a week to go. Hoppins added the Innisfail Christmas Bureau typically serves about 400 citizens, including up to 89 families, at their headquarters located just inside the west entrance of the Co-op Mall.
“We might be close to that number again this year but we don’t know until they show up,” she said.
She said donations were being dropped off at Harley's Hutch Raw Pet Food & Pet Store, Innisfail Home Hardware, Jackson's Pharmasave, Dairy Queen and town hall. Volunteers would pick them up fom there.
Hoppins said cash donations and cheques were mostly being dropped off at the town office. The monies are used to purchase gifts, particularly for difficult-to-buy age groups like teenagers.
“People love buying trucks and dolls but they don’t know so much about what to buy for teenagers,” she said, adding the bureau is giving out many gift cards for the difficult-to-buy age categories.
In the meantime, each Christmas hamper is lovingly filled with books, puzzles, games, toques, mitts, gloves, stuffies, and several toys for smaller children. As well, when parents come to the Christmas Bureau they choose a major gift up to a value of $75. That can be just one gift or two or three totalling $75.
Hoppins said with the hardship everyone is enduring getting everything done just right is especially important for her and all the volunteers.
“Sometimes we get phone calls for things other than toys for children. We’ll get a request for coats and boots and mitts. That’s why for cash donations we definitely use that money to go out and purchase what is needed,” she said, noting the bureau no longer handles food requests due to complications of putting packages together. However, they do hand out gift cards from either NoFrills or Co-op.
As of Dec. 15, the bureau still had two more interview dates, she said, adding all work at the headquarters will be wrapped up by today, Dec. 18, for the hampers to be delivered.
She said any leftover donated items will be put into storage for next year’s start up.
“We never have too many stuffies. We are quite generous with stuffies,” she said.
