THUNDER BAY – The Thunder Bay Children’s Aid Society kicked off its Holiday Wishes Tree campaign on Friday.
The holiday season can be a very difficult time for parents, children and youth living on their own, struggling to make ends meet and the campaign’s goal is to help them through the season.
“I think people always want to help and I think Thunder Bay has a giant heart, we know that and I see that every day with our volunteers who continue to engage and engage throughout the whole pandemic supporting our families,” said Volunteer program manager Charmaine Cades.
“We definitely try to address all the concerns, we had to quarantine gifts last year and all those sorts of things, we have a consistent team so we have a smaller footprint in office to do those tasks that we do, so, we have a smaller team and we utilize them more so, there’s those kinds of changes, but, all in all people are very happy to help.”
Donation trees are displayed at all three Walmart locations in Thunder Bay, each one is decorated with snowman gift tags for children and youth.
Shoppers choose a gift tag; purchase an age appropriate gift and leave the unwrapped gift in the designated area for the TBCAS volunteer captain to pick up and deliver to the agency for quarantining.
During this year’s campaign, TBCAS is hoping to deliver 450 gifts to children and youth, 81 gifts more than the 374 gifts it received and delivered in 2020.
“We kind of had a trial last year because we were in the thick of the pandemic and I actually was quite uncertain as to how our outcomes would be,” Cades said
“But to have been able to provide even more gifts than the year before was just overwhelming and heartwarming of course, and those gifts mean more than just a present to a family, they often mean that someone who doesn’t know them maybe understands their situation and feels for them.”
