It’s been all hands on deck at Barrie & District Christmas Cheer’s Truman Road warehouse this week as volunteers race to finish packing food boxes and toy hampers for nearly 2,000 local families in need.
By the end of the day Tuesday, they had received $305,270 in financial donations, leaving them with a significant $144,730 shortfall to fully support families this Christmas, but there was still hope for a Christmas miracle, president Sandra Yaquo told BarrieToday.
“We are going to struggle right through to the end and make it happen,” she said with confidence. “We don’t know from where, but it’s coming.”
Yaquo said seeing volunteers return year after year to help is “the most incredible thing ever.”
“That’s the most heartwarming piece of what we do. There are 1,000 different hands that are involved in Christmas Cheer and 1,000 different hearts,” she said. “Most people do come back every single year. It’s pretty incredible ... Within about 48 hours of (going live on the website), all of our volunteer shifts are completely booked. It’s as if the community is just waiting to see it launch.”
Meredith Agius was one of the more than 1,300 volunteers to step up to help this year, helping out on Tuesday afternoon to pack the food hampers. The Barrie resident has been volunteering with Christmas Cheer for about five years and said she will continue to do so for as long as it’s needed.
“It’s just the need for the work that they do and what it does for the people who really need it. It’s been great because I have done a little bit of everything over the years,” she said.
This year is the biggest in Christmas Cheer’s 50-year history, Yaquo said, helping 1,950 families — more than 5,800 individuals.
Each family, she said, will receive a food hamper that is valued at about $150 and will include a turkey. Each child in the household younger than 11 will receive a full toy bag while youth between the ages of 11 and 18 will receive a $100 gift card for RioCan. A $25 gift card is also included for each family member toward the purchase of fresh produce to go along with the food hamper, allowing families to prepare a full turkey dinner, she noted.
Yaquo said thanks to the generosity of the community this year, Christmas Cheer had collected all of the food it required to fill the 1,950 hampers and had received nearly enough toys to ensure a little something under the tree for every child. That said, it is still shy of the $450,000 financial goal, she acknowledged.
“We are now short on gift cards, so we are using all monetary donations towards the purchase of gift cards that we need for our families.”
“I just want to say thank you from the bottom of my heart. This is a community-run organization; it belongs to the community and it’s for the community. Thank you for everything … We can’t do it without you.”
Distribution of the food boxes and toy hampers is scheduled for Thursday and Friday, and will include help from local members of the military, who will assist with the drive-through distribution on Thursday and Friday, when families can drive through, give their last name, submit their card, and gather their items.
For more information or to donate, visit ChristmasCheerBarrie.com.
