SUNDRE — The spirit of the annual Sundre Santas community holiday initiative remains alive and well despite the pandemic, but the program will be delivered “with a twist” this year, said an organizer.
“We have decided to go ahead with it,” said Cherie Johnson, a Family and Community Support Services program coordinator with the Greenwood Neighbourhood Place Society.
The board met in August to discuss best- and worst-case scenarios as well as where the society fits within the provincial health guidelines. Because Sundre Santas represents a big undertaking at a substantial cost, organizers opted to plot a course that minimizes the potential risk of losses in the event of any shutdowns.
“We had to make so many changes,” Johnson said during a recent phone interview.
“This year, we had to cancel some of our events.”
The Magic of Christmas Sale shopping spree for kids who want to purchase affordable presents for family and friends has been cancelled, while the annual food drive is not expected to happen, she said.
“Normally, we have bins around the community to collect non-perishable food, and because of the restrictions on quarantining things and sanitizing everything, we just don’t have a process to be able to contain those things over a period of time,” she said.
“It’s super sad for me, because normally we have all the school kids come in. That’s a huge part of this program, is the volunteers and the schools and the kids.”
Additionally, the society will not be accepting food or gift donations, she said.
“We’re not accepting anything but financial donations and gift cards this year.”
However, albeit on a reduced timeline in December, Santa's Workshop will for the third year in a row return to the old Sundre Motors building on the north side of Highway 27-Main Avenue immediately east of the traffic lights.
Although there have been so few confirmed cases in the area, the society wants to keep it that way and preferred erring on the side of caution.
“We’re trying to prevent,” she said, recognizing that many of the volunteers fall into the at-risk age group.
“We’ve really taken them into consideration to keep everybody safe and healthy while still helping our community out.”
Even in the event of another shutdown or further restrictions, she said plans are in place to follow through with some options.
“If we did get shut down in December, then at least I could still give gift cards out to people.”
Registrations for the food hamper program will be available following Remembrance Day on Nov. 12, with the deadline to submit forms set for Dec. 8.
Since the food hamper program will not be able to rely on traditional supplemental initiatives such as the food drive, community collection bins, and River Valley School campaigns, financial donations will be more important than ever this year, she said, adding a charitable tax receipt is available for donations over $10. The society will use some of the proceeds to purchase basic food hampers along with a gift card to the grocery store.
“The gift cards are also purchased from financial donations. So, everything basically depends on the financial donations this year.”
Food will be delivered to Santa's Workshop, where a couple of volunteers will pack items into reusable bags instead of boxes to simplify the process in the face of pandemic protocols, she said.
“Everything will be assembled in a matter of about three days,” she said, adding, deliveries and pickups will then be carried out over two days.
Since there are so few volunteers at the workshop when pickups and deliveries are done, they’ll be able to wear masks and sanitize as they load hampers into vehicles, and Johnson does not anticipate any issues.
“I don’t think it’s going to really be a big deal because I don’t have people coming in and out of that building at that time. Everything is packed and ready to just walk out the door,” she said.
“So, I don’t foresee that there’ll be any sort of issues doing that. It’s not a congested space at that moment.”
The society planned to send out within a week or so letters soliciting donations from the community, she said, adding the next Sundre on the Go newsletter will feature a list of the businesses where people can pick up forms for the food hamper program.
“This year, the registration forms can only be dropped off in person here at Greenwood. That’s another little change,” she said, adding forms could previously also be brought to a bin at the Sundre Municipal Library next door.
“But everything has to come into the office this year.”
Despite the hurdles organizers have had to overcome, Johnson express relief about nevertheless being able to deliver.
“I’m just happy that we’re able to continue this year. We have worked very hard to ensure that this program will continue to care for our community — and it will, with a twist.”
