Firefighters deliver

Linda Gambee’s heart stopped for a moment when she saw the total amount for fundraised by this year’s Firefighters’ Toys for Tots campaign.

The Christmas Cheer chairwoman and her committee had guessed $125,000, so when $137,546 was unveiled Wednesday at Intercity Shopping Centre, she was overwhelmed.

“It’s an unbelievable amount and it will go to so many kids that are deserving of having a really good Christmas,” she said.

Christmas Cheer gave out hampers to about 7,000 people this year and Gambee said about 4,500 of them are probably children.

“There are children in this city – hundreds and hundreds of them – that really don’t have anything to open for Christmas,” she said. “It’s hard to believe but they don’t have one gift under their tree and if we can provide them with a gift and a sweater and something to keep them warm, I think it just says everything for our community to be able to give that to our kids.”

This year’s total is about $5,000 more than the money raised last year, said Firefighter’s Toys for Tots committee chairman Bob Vander Ploeg. That brings the total raised since 1976 to almost $2.3 million.

While the campaign is run by the Thunder Bay Professional Fire Fighters Association, Vander Ploeg said the credit lies with the people of the city.

“It’s the citizens and the businesses and the schools and the fraternal organizations and the churches and so on,” he said. “It’s the people of Thunder Bay that actually make the donations we collect. What is says is that Thunder Bay is a caring community, that they’re interested and concerned about Toys for Tots and they’ve been so for more than 50 years and they’re determined to make sure it’s successful every year.”

While the Toys for Tots campaigns covers the gift portion of the Christmas Cheer campaign, they are still $42,000 short of their $165,000 goal for this year.

Gambee said they’re still optimistic they’ll hit their target since they will continue to collect donations into the New Year.

“Cheques are coming in every day and hopefully it will get us over the top,” she said.
Donations can be made to the Christmas Cheer campaign at any Scotiabank branch, the main office on the CLE grounds and either Quality Market location.