CARSTAIRS - Silver Willow Sporting Club collected over 300 toys as well as cash and gift cards at its recent annual Winter Classic Shoot.
The toys, cash and gift cards were donated to the Carstairs Lions Club and the Didsbury Christmas Helpers hamper program to help local families this Christmas.
"We had a fantastic turnout for the shoot due to the above average temperatures," said Silver Willow co-owner Gwen Day. "We had about 48 participants come out from all over Alberta. The toys have been arriving over the past few weeks.
"Other clients have brought out toys as well. We had thousands of dollars' worth of toys and cash donations from our clients."
For the past 20 years, Silver Willow has held a toy drive in conjunction with the final shoot of the year.
Jason DeJong took the high overall with a score of 91 out of 100. Jason's daughter Julia, at 12 years old, took first in sub-junior, second in ladies' and second in e-class with a score of 46 out of 100.
Both the Didsbury Helpers and the Carstairs Lions Club were grateful for the help from the club, "and we were grateful to share," added Day.
Day said they began the program those many years ago by helping the Mustard Seed in Calgary.
"As time went on they stopped doing the Santa's Workshop and we decided why don't we see if we can't distribute these toys locally," she said.
"Both groups said there are more people this year requesting hampers mostly because of the downturn. It's wonderful (we can help); our hearts are to help out the community and in particular the children in our community."
