The Elmira Lions Hall looked a lot more like Santa’s workshop than its usual self as volunteers busily sorted, packed, and wrapped gifts for Woolwich Community Services’ Christmas Goodwill program.
Rows of tables overflowed with toys, grouped into sections like Barbie, farm toys, and anything from the hugely popular Frozen movie. Racks of new pajamas and winter wear lined the coat closet.
Kelly Christie, director of community supports, said they were preparing Christmas hampers for 154 local families.
“Last year was 150. They’re very similar but we’ll still probably get a couple more in,” Christie said.
They started on Sunday last week, logging a 12-hour day followed by more long days on Monday and Tuesday. They spent two days sorting, Tuesday wrapping and then being on hand as the families picked them up prior to the holidays.
“We’re designating all the gifts to all the boxes,” Christie said. “Mom and dad get a little gift. The kids get an outfit, pajamas, socks, underwear, sweater or hoodie, and then they all get toys.”
A heap of donated food from the Kiwanis Club food drive lined one wall. Christie added the fire department would be bringing more from local schools’ food drives. Each family will also get a gift card to either Foodland or Food Basics and a turkey or ham, depending on their request.
Christie said they have a great group of volunteers doing various projects, including the Elmira Mennonite Youth Group who sorted the donated food.
“Yesterday we had I’d say eight people building boxes,” Christie said. “We had a hockey team of kids and parents doing food. We had a girls hockey team bringing in all the presents in their trucks and trailers. Then we have 30 here today and then tomorrow it’s two shifts of probably 18 wrapping. The food sorters, there are probably 40. It just goes on and on. It’s amazing.”
Now in her 14th year of running the Christmas hamper program, she says the donations reflect growing support.
“The quality of toys has increased. The amount of food from the door-to-door food drive has increased. It’s been generous from day-one,” Christie said.
One of the most rewarding parts of the hampers is deciding which gifts go where. They ask the parents to provide a list of interests for each child, so that, for example, a girl with a pixie cut doesn’t end up with a bunch of hair accessories she can’t use.
“They call in and they tell us what the child wants, cars and tractors, educational games, dolls, soft blankets,” Christie said. “They can be really specific because we ask them to. We encourage them to be specific and not be shy because then we’re here going, ‘What do we give them?’”
She continued, “We know they’re a female, 10, that could mean a lot of things. If they tell us they’re crafty or they’re artsy or they like science or they’re a book reader or they’re a Barbie person, then we can find that in there.”
This attention to detail makes it much more fun for the volunteers because they get a sense of the child.
She said when parents sign up for the program she tells them to wait until they get the hamper before they go shopping for their kids. While they want to participate and buy their children something special, the community has always been generous when donating and what they’re planning to get might already be in the hamper.
Christie adds the families will get a comfortable Christmas, not overly extravagant, but certainly not stingy.
“Every kid deserves a Christmas, and every parent deserves to be able to give that.”
